1.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
United States
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Native Americans meeting with Europeans, 1764
United States
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Flag
United States
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The signing of the
Mayflower Compact, 1620.
United States
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The
Declaration of Independence: the
Committee of Five presenting their draft to the
Second Continental Congress in 1776
2.
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motion pictures. The Academys corporate management and general policies are overseen by a Board of Governors, the roster of the Academys approximately 6,000 motion picture professionals is a closely guarded secret. While the great majority of its members are based in the United States, the Academy is known around the world for its annual Academy Awards, now officially known as The Oscars. The Academy plans to open the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles in 2017, the notion of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences began with Louis B. He said he wanted to create an organization that would mediate labor disputes without unions and he met with actor Conrad Nagel, director Fred Niblo, and the head of the Association of Motion Picture Producers, Fred Beetsonto to discuss these matters. The idea of this elite club having a banquet was discussed. They also established that membership into the organization would only be open to people involved in one of the five branches of the industry, actors, directors, writers, technicians, and producers. That evening Mayer presented to those guests what he called the International Academy of Motion Picture Arts, everyone in the room that evening became a founder of the Academy. Several organizational meetings were held prior to the first official meeting held on May 6,1927 and their first organizational meeting was held on May 11. At that meeting Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. was elected as the first president of the Academy, while Fred Niblo was the first vice-president and that night, the Academy also bestowed its first honorary membership, to Thomas Edison. Initially, the Academy was broken down into five groups, or branches. The original five were, Producers, Actors, Directors, Writers, the initial concerns of the group had to do with labor. However, as went on, the organization moved further away from involvement in labor-management arbitrations and negotiations. By July 1928 the board of directors had approved a list of 12 awards to be presented, during July the voting system for the Awards was established, and the nomination and selection process began. This award of merit for distinctive achievement is what we know now as the Academy Award, the initial location of the organization was 6912 Hollywood Boulevard. In May 1928, the Academy authorized the construction of a state of the art screening room, the screening room was not completed until April 1929. With the publication of Report on Incandescent Illumination in 1928, the Academy began a history of publishing books to assist its members. Another early initiative concerned training Army Signal Corps officers, in 1929 Academy members in a joint venture with the University of Southern California created Americas first film school to further the art and science of moving pictures
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
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Headquarters building
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
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Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
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Fairbanks Center for Motion Picture Study building on La Cienega Boulevard in Beverly Hills, California
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
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Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study in the Hollywood district
3.
1st Academy Awards
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AMPAS president Douglas Fairbanks hosted the show. Tickets cost $5,270 people attended the event and the ceremony lasted fifteen minutes. Awards were created by Louis B, Mayer, founder of Louis B. Mayer Pictures Corporation. It is the only Academy Awards ceremony not to be broadcast either on radio or television, during the ceremony, the AMPAS presented Academy Awards in twelve categories. Winners were announced three months before the live event, some nominations were announced without reference to a specific film, such as for Ralph Hammeras and Nugent Slaughter, who received nominations in the now defunct category of Engineering Effects. Unlike later ceremonies, an actor or director could be awarded for works within a calendar year. Emil Jannings, for example, was given the Best Actor award for his work in both The Way of All Flesh and The Last Command, moreover, Charlie Chaplin and Warner Brothers each received an Honorary Award. Major winners at the ceremony included 7th Heaven and Sunrise, which received three awards, and Wings, receiving two awards. Among its honors, Sunrise won the award for Unique and Artistic Picture and these two categories at the time were seen as equally the top award of the night intended to honor different and equally important aspects of superior film making. The next year, the Academy dropped the Unique and Artistic Picture award, in 1927, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was established by Louis B. Mayer, originator of Louis B. Mayer Pictures Corporation, which then would be joined into Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, mayers purpose in creating the award was to unite the five branches of the film industry, including actors, directors, producers, technicians, and writers. Mayer commented on the creation of the awards I found that the best way to handle was to hang medals all over them, if I got them cups and awards theyd kill them to produce what I wanted. Thats why the Academy Award was created, Mayer asked Cedric Gibbons, art director of MGM, to design an Academy Award trophy. Nominees were notified through a telegram in February 1928, in August 1928, Mayer contacted the Academy Central Board of Judges to decide winners. The ceremony was held on May 16,1929, at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, located in Los Angeles and it consisted of a private dinner with thirty-six banquet tables, where 270 people attended and tickets cost five dollars. Actors and actresses arrived at the hotel in luxury vehicles, where many attended to encourage celebrities. The ceremony was not broadcast on radio or television, and was hosted by AMPAS director Fairbanks, winners were announced three months before the ceremony. Three categories were eliminated for subsequent presentations, Best Engineering Effects, Best Title Writing, the larger film producers received the preponderance of awards, Fox Films Corporation, MGM, Paramount Pictures, Radio-Keith-Orpheum and Warner Brothers Production
1st Academy Awards
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The first Academy Awards was at the
Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.
1st Academy Awards
1st Academy Awards
1st Academy Awards
4.
The Jungle Book (2016 film)
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The Jungle Book is a 2016 American fantasy adventure film, directed and co-produced by Jon Favreau, produced by Walt Disney Pictures, and written by Justin Marks. The film introduces Neel Sethi as Mowgli and also features the voices of Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley, Idris Elba, Lupita Nyongo, Scarlett Johansson, Giancarlo Esposito, and Christopher Walken. Favreau, Marks and producer Brigham Taylor developed the story as a balance between Disneys animated adaptation and Kiplings original works, borrowing elements from both into the film. Principal photography commenced in 2014, with filming taking place entirely in Los Angeles, the film required extensive use of computer-generated imagery to portray the animals and settings. The Jungle Book was released in North America in Disney Digital 3-D, RealD 3D, IMAX 3D, D-Box and it became a critical and commercial success, grossing over $966 million, making it the fifth highest-grossing film of 2016 and the 32nd highest-grossing film of all time. The film won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, Mowgli is a man cub raised by the Seeonee Indian wolf Raksha and her pack, led by Akela, in an Indian jungle ever since he was brought to them as a baby by the black panther Bagheera. The truce is disrupted when a tiger named Shere Khan arrives detecting Mowglis scent in the large crowd. Resentful against man for scarring him, he issues a warning that he will kill Mowgli at the end of the drought, after the drought ends, the wolves debate whether they should keep Mowgli or not. Mowgli decides to leave the jungle for the safety of his pack, Bagheera agrees with the decision and volunteers to guide him to the nearby man village. En route, Shere Khan ambushes them and injures Bagheera, later, Mowgli meets an enormous python named Kaa who hypnotizes him. While under her influence, Mowgli sees a vision of his father being mauled while protecting him from Shere Khan, the vision also warns of the destructive power of the red flower. Kaa attempts to devour Mowgli, but she is attacked by a bear named Baloo. Baloo and Mowgli bond while retrieving some difficult-to-access honey for Baloo, upon learning that Mowgli has left the jungle, Shere Khan kills Akela and threatens the pack to lure Mowgli out. Bagheera eventually finds Mowgli and Baloo and is angered that Mowgli has not joined the humans as agreed, during the night, Mowgli finds a herd of Indian elephants gathered around a ditch and uses his vines to save a baby elephant from the ditch. Although Baloo and Bagheera are both impressed, Baloo realizes that he cannot guarantee Mowglis safety after learning that he is being hunted by Shere Khan, Baloo agrees to push Mowgli away to get him to continue onward to the man village. Mowgli is kidnapped by the Bandar-log who present him to their leader, assuming that all humans can make fire, King Louie offers Mowgli protection from Shere Khan in exchange for it. Baloo distracts King Louie while Bagheera tries to him out. As King Louie chases Mowgli through his temple, he informs Mowgli of Akelas death, King Louies rampage eventually causes his temple to collapse on top of him
The Jungle Book (2016 film)
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Teaser poster
5.
Academy Awards
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The various category winners are awarded a copy of a golden statuette, officially called the Academy Award of Merit, which has become commonly known by its nickname Oscar. The awards, first presented in 1929 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, are overseen by AMPAS, the awards ceremony was first broadcast on radio in 1930 and televised for the first time in 1953. It is now live in more than 200 countries and can be streamed live online. The Academy Awards ceremony is the oldest worldwide entertainment awards ceremony and its equivalents – the Emmy Awards for television, the Tony Awards for theater, and the Grammy Awards for music and recording – are modeled after the Academy Awards. The 89th Academy Awards ceremony, honoring the best films of 2016, were held on February 26,2017, at the Dolby Theatre, in Los Angeles, the ceremony was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and was broadcast on ABC. A total of 3,048 Oscars have been awarded from the inception of the award through the 88th, the first Academy Awards presentation was held on May 16,1929, at a private dinner function at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel with an audience of about 270 people. The post-awards party was held at the Mayfair Hotel, the cost of guest tickets for that nights ceremony was $5. Fifteen statuettes were awarded, honoring artists, directors and other participants in the industry of the time. The ceremony ran for 15 minutes, winners were announced to media three months earlier, however, that was changed for the second ceremony in 1930. Since then, for the rest of the first decade, the results were given to newspapers for publication at 11,00 pm on the night of the awards. The first Best Actor awarded was Emil Jannings, for his performances in The Last Command and he had to return to Europe before the ceremony, so the Academy agreed to give him the prize earlier, this made him the first Academy Award winner in history. With the fourth ceremony, however, the system changed, for the first six ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned two calendar years. At the 29th ceremony, held on March 27,1957, until then, foreign-language films had been honored with the Special Achievement Award. The 74th Academy Awards, held in 2002, presented the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, since 1973, all Academy Awards ceremonies always end with the Academy Award for Best Picture. The Academy also awards Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting, see also § Awards of Merit categories The best known award is the Academy Award of Merit, more popularly known as the Oscar statuette. The five spokes represent the branches of the Academy, Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers. The model for the statuette is said to be Mexican actor Emilio El Indio Fernández, sculptor George Stanley sculpted Cedric Gibbons design. The statuettes presented at the ceremonies were gold-plated solid bronze
Academy Awards
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Academy Awards
Academy Awards
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31st Academy Awards Presentations,
Pantages Theatre, Hollywood, 1959
Academy Awards
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81st Academy Awards Presentations,
Dolby Theatre, Hollywood, 2009
Academy Awards
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Pantages Theatre, 2008
6.
Wings (1927 film)
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Wings is a 1927 American silent war film set during the First World War produced by Lucien Hubbard, directed by William A. Wellman and released by Paramount Pictures and it stars Clara Bow, Charles Buddy Rogers, and Richard Arlen, and Gary Cooper appears in a role which helped launch his career in Hollywood. The film, a romantic picture, was rewritten by scriptwriters Hope Loring and Louis D. Lighton from a story by John Monk Saunders to accommodate Bow. The film was shot on location on a budget of $2 million at Kelly Field in San Antonio, Wellman extensively rehearsed the scenes for the Battle of Saint-Mihiel over ten days with some 3500 infantrymen on a battlefield made for the production on location. Acclaimed for its prowess and realism upon release, the film became the yardstick against which future aviation films were measured. It went on to win the first Academy Award for Best Picture at the first annual Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences award ceremony in 1929 and it also won the Academy Award for Best Engineering Effects. Wings was one of the first to two men kissing, and also one of the first widely released films to show nudity. The Academy Film Archive preserved Wings in 2002, Jack Powell and David Armstrong are rivals in the same small American town, both vying for the attentions of pretty Sylvia Lewis. Jack fails to realize that the next door, Mary Preston, is desperately in love with him. The two young men both enlist to become pilots in the Air Service. When they leave for training camp, Jack mistakenly believes Sylvia prefers him and she actually prefers David and lets him know about her feelings, but is too kindhearted to turn down Jacks affection. Jack and David are billeted together and their tent mate is Cadet White, but their acquaintance is all too brief, White is killed in an air crash the same day. Undaunted, the two men endure a rigorous training period, where they go from being enemies to best friends, upon graduating, they are shipped off to France to fight the Germans. Mary joins the war effort by becoming an ambulance driver and she later learns of Jacks reputation as the ace known as The Shooting Star and encounters him while on leave in Paris. She finds him, but he is too drunk to recognize her, the climax of the story comes with the epic Battle of Saint-Mihiel. David is shot down and presumed dead, however, he survives the crash landing, steals a German biplane, and heads for the Allied lines. By a tragic stroke of bad luck, Jack spots the enemy aircraft and, bent on avenging his friend and he is successful in downing the aircraft and lands to retrieve a souvenir of his victory. The owner of the land where Davids aircraft crashed urges Jack to come to the mans side
Wings (1927 film)
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Film poster
Wings (1927 film)
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Clara Bow as Mary Preston in Wings
Wings (1927 film)
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Richard Arlen in Wings
Wings (1927 film)
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Director William A. Wellman was an experienced pilot himself
7.
David O. Selznick
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David O. Selznick was an American film producer, screenwriter and film studio executive. He is best known for producing Gone with the Wind and Rebecca, David Selznick was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of Florence Anna and silent movie producer and distributor Lewis J. Selznick. His parents were Ukrainian Jewish immigrants and he had four siblings and his dad was born in Kyiv in 1870. Selznick added the O to distinguish himself from an uncle with the same name and he studied at Columbia University in New York City and worked as an apprentice for his father until the elders bankruptcy in 1923. In 1926, Selznick moved to Hollywood, and with the help of his fathers connections and he left MGM for Paramount Pictures in 1928, where he worked until 1931, when he joined RKO as Head of Production. David Selznicks years at RKO were fruitful, and he worked on films, including A Bill of Divorcement. Rockabye, Bird of Paradise, Our Betters, and King Kong, while at RKO, he also gave George Cukor his directing break. In 1933 he returned to MGM where his father-in-law, Louis B, mayer established a second prestige production unit for David, parallel to that of powerful Irving Thalberg, who was in poor health. Selznicks unit output included the all star cast movie Dinner at Eight, David Copperfield, Anna Karenina, despite his output of successful movies at MGM, Paramount Pictures, and RKO Pictures, Selznick longed to be an independent producer with his own studio. In 1935 he realized that goal by leasing RKO Culver City Studios & back lot, formed Selznick International Pictures, Gone with the Wind won eight Oscars and two special awards. Selznick also won the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award that same year, in 1940 he produced his second Best Picture Oscar winner in a row, Rebecca, the first Hollywood production for British director Alfred Hitchcock. Selznick had brought Hitchcock over from England, launching the directors American career, Rebecca was Hitchcocks only film to win Best Picture. After Rebecca, Selznick closed Selznick International Pictures and took time off. His business activities included the loan of his artists to other studios, including Alfred Hitchcock, Ingrid Bergman, Vivien Leigh. In 1944, he formed The Selznick Studio and returned to producing pictures with the huge success Since You Went Away and he followed that with the Hitchcock films Spellbound and The Paradine Case, as well as Portrait of Jennie, a vehicle for Jennifer Jones. He also developed projects and sold the packages to other producers. Among the movies that he developed but then sold was Hitchcocks Notorious, in 1949 he co-produced the Carol Reed picture The Third Man with Alexander Korda. Gone with the Wind overshadowed the rest of Selznicks career, later, he was convinced that he had wasted his life trying to out do it
David O. Selznick
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David O. Selznick
David O. Selznick
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Jennifer Jones and Selznick in Los Angeles, 1957.
David O. Selznick
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Crypt of David O. Selznick, in the Great Mausoleum, Forest Lawn Glendale
8.
RKO Radio Pictures
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RKO Pictures Inc. also known as RKO Radio Pictures and in its later years RKO Teleradio Pictures, was an American film production and distribution company. It was one of the Big Five studios of Hollywoods Golden Age, RCA chief David Sarnoff engineered the merger to create a market for the companys sound-on-film technology, RCA Photophone. By the mid-1940s, the studio was under the control of investor Floyd Odlum, RKO has long been celebrated for its series of musicals starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in the mid-to-late 1930s. Actors Katharine Hepburn and, later, Robert Mitchum had their first major successes at the studio, cary Grant was a mainstay for years. The work of producer Val Lewtons low-budget horror unit and RKOs many ventures into the now known as film noir have been acclaimed, largely after the fact, by film critics. The studio produced two of the most famous films in motion picture history, King Kong and Citizen Kane, RKO Pictures is also a member of Motion Picture Association of America. Maverick industrialist Howard Hughes took over RKO in 1948, after years of turmoil and decline under his control, Hughes sold the troubled studio to General Tire and Rubber Company in 1955. The original RKO Pictures ceased production in 1957 and was dissolved two years later. In 1981, broadcaster RKO General, the heir, revived it as a production subsidiary. In October 1927, Warner Bros. released The Jazz Singer and its success prompted Hollywood to convert from silent to sound film production en masse. The Radio Corporation of America controlled an advanced optical sound-on-film system, RCA Photophone, the industrys two largest major studios, Paramount and Loews/MGM, with two other studios Universal and First National, were poised to contract with ERPI for sound conversion as well. Next on the agenda was securing a string of exhibition venues like those the leading Hollywood production companies owned, Kennedy began investigating the possibility of such a purchase. Around that time, the large Keith-Albee-Orpheum circuit of theaters, built around the medium of live vaudeville, was attempting a transition to the movie business. In mid-1927, the operations of Pathé Exchange and Cecil B. De Milles Producers Distributing Corporation had united under KAOs control, early in 1928, KAO general manager John J. Murdock, who had assumed the presidency of Pathé, turned to Kennedy as an adviser in consolidating the studio with De Milles company, PDC. This was the relationship Sarnoff and Kennedy sought, on October 23,1928, RCA announced the creation of the Radio-Keith-Orpheum holding company, with Sarnoff as chairman of the board. Kennedy, who withdrew from his positions in the merged companies, kept Pathé separate from RKO. RCA owned the governing stock interest in RKO,22 percent, in the early 1930s, the companys production and distribution arm, presided over by former FBO vice-president Joseph I
RKO Radio Pictures
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RKO Radio Pictures Inc.
RKO Radio Pictures
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Early Radio-Keith-Orpheum logo
RKO Radio Pictures
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Rio Rita (1929), first smash hit for RKO (then releasing films under the "Radio Pictures" banner)
RKO Radio Pictures
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King Kong (1933), one of Hollywood's great spectacles
9.
King Kong (1933 film)
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King Kong is a 1933 American pre-Code monster adventure film directed and produced by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. The screenplay by James Ashmore Creelman and Ruth Rose was from an idea conceived by Cooper and it stars Fay Wray, Bruce Cabot and Robert Armstrong, and opened in New York City on March 2,1933, to rave reviews. It has been ranked by Rotten Tomatoes as the greatest horror film of all time, the film tells of a gigantic, prehistoric, island-dwelling ape called Kong who dies in an attempt to possess a beautiful young woman. King Kong is especially noted for its stop-motion animation by Willis OBrien, in 1991 it was deemed culturally, historically and aesthetically significant by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. It has been remade twice, in 1976 and 2005, while a reboot, Kong, due to set sail that night, Denham searches the streets of New York for a suitable woman. He meets penniless Ann Darrow and convinces her to him for what he proposes as the adventure of a lifetime. The Venture quickly gets underway and, during the voyage, the surly first mate, Jack Driscoll, after weeks of secrecy, Denham finally tells Englehorn and Driscoll that their destination is Skull Island, an uncharted land shown on a map in Denhams possession. Denham also cryptically alludes to some monstrous creature rumored to dwell on the island, when they find the island and anchor offshore, they see a native village, separated from the rest of the island by an enormous ancient stone wall. A landing party, including the crew and Ann, witnesses a group of natives preparing to sacrifice a young maiden as the bride of Kong. The intruders are spotted and the native chief angrily stops the ceremony, when he sees the blonde Ann, he offers to trade six of his tribal women for the golden woman. They rebuff him and return to the Venture and that night, a band of natives kidnap Ann from the ship and lead her through a huge wooden gate in the wall. Tied to an altar, she is offered to Kong, who turns out to be an enormous gorilla-like ape, Kong carries her off into the jungle as the Venture crew, alerted to Anns abduction, arrive. They open the gate and Denham, Driscoll and some enter the jungle in hopes of rescuing Ann. They soon discover that Kong is far from the giant prehistoric creature on the island when they are charged by a Stegosaurus. After constructing a raft in order to cross a swamp, a Brontosaurus capsizes their supplies, fleeing through the jungle, they soon encounter Kong, who tries to stop them from crossing a ravine by shaking them off a fallen tree that bridges it. Only Driscoll and Denham, on sides, survive. A Tyrannosaurus threatens Ann, but Kong kills it after a colossal battle, Driscoll continues to shadow Kong and Ann while Denham returns to the village for more ammunition. Upon arriving in Kongs lair in a cave, Ann is menaced by a snake-like Elasmosaurus
King Kong (1933 film)
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Original theatrical poster by
Keye Luke
King Kong (1933 film)
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Promotional image featuring Kong battling the Tyrannosaurus.
King Kong (1933 film)
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An articulated skeleton of the Brontosaurus used in the film.
King Kong (1933 film)
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1933 French movie poster
10.
Spawn of the North
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Spawn of the North is a 1938 film about rival fishermen in Alaska starring George Raft and featuring Henry Fonda, Dorothy Lamour, and John Barrymore. The movie was directed by Henry Hathaway, Jim Kimmerlee owns a salmon cannery. He is pleased to see old friend Tyler Dawson, who has been away hunting seal, also glad to see Tyler is his sweetheart, hotel owner Nicky Duval. Thieves have been stealing from fishing traps, Jim is determined to put a stop to it, engaging in a feud with Red Skain, a Russian fisherman who is suspected in the thefts. Di Turlon comes back to town several years of big-city life. The adjustment to the community is awkward at first, but Di comes around. As he and others go after Red and the thieves, Jim is dismayed to learn that Tyler has become one of Reds accomplices. Planning to catch the fish poachers in the act, Jim tries to spare Tyler by having Nicky sabotage his boat, Jim exchanges gunfire with the thieves, killing two and wounding Tyler. After being found and helped by his friend after Red has abandoned him, close to death, he takes a boat back out, confronts Red, then blows a loud boat whistle that causes an avalanche, resulting in both mens death. Jim speaks admiringly of his friends sacrificial act, sparks Michio Ito as Indian Dancer Stanley Andrews as Partridge Richard Ung as Tom The film was a big box office success and was later remade as Alaska Seas. The special effects and production team who worked on Spawn of the North received an Academy Honorary Award at the 11th Academy Awards for their efforts, mills, Louis H. Mesenkop and Walter Oberst. Spawn of the North at the American Film Institute Catalog Spawn of the North at the Internet Movie Database
Spawn of the North
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Spawn of the North
11.
The Nightmare Before Christmas
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Danny Elfman wrote the songs and score, and provided the singing voice of Jack. The principal voice cast also includes Chris Sarandon, Catherine OHara, William Hickey, Ken Page, Paul Reubens, the Nightmare Before Christmas originated in a poem written by Tim Burton in 1982, while he was working as an animator at Walt Disney Feature Animation. With the success of Vincent in the year, Walt Disney Studios began to consider developing The Nightmare Before Christmas as either a short film or 30-minute television special. Over the years, Burtons thoughts regularly returned to the project, production started in July 1991 in San Francisco. Disney released the film through the Touchstone Pictures banner because the studio believed the film would be too dark, the film was met with both critical and financial success, grossing over $76 million during its initial run. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, Halloween Town is a fantasy world filled with citizens such as deformed monsters, ghosts, ghouls, goblins, zombies, mummies, vampires, werewolves and witches. Jack Skellington, a skeleton with the title of Pumpkin King, however, Jack reveals he has grown weary of the same routine year after year, and wants something new. Wandering dejectedly in the woods, he stumbles across seven trees containing doors leading to towns representing various holidays, impressed by the bright and cheery feeling and style of Christmas, Jack presents his findings and his understanding of Christmas, to the Halloween Town residents. However, they fail to grasp his meaning and compare everything to their ideas of Halloween, Jack is dismayed that no one understands the feeling of Christmas, and obsessively studies the holiday but fails to find any further explanation of it. He ultimately decides that its unfair for Christmas Town alone to enjoy the feeling and announces that he, Jacks obsession with Christmas leads him to usurp the role of Sandy Claws. Every resident is assigned a task, while Sally, a rag doll woman. However, after a vision of a burning Christmas tree, she realizes that his plans to run Christmas will become disastrous. Jack assigns Lock, Shock and Barrel, a trio of mischievous trick-or-treating children, to abduct Santa, against Jacks wishes and largely for their amusement, the trio delivers Santa to Oogie Boogie, a gambling-addict bogeyman, who plots to play a game with Santas life at stake. Christmas Eve arrives and after Sallys attempts to stop Jack fail, Jack departs in a sleigh pulled by skeletal reindeer. Jack begins to deliver presents to children around the world, after the residents complain to the police about his presents, Jack is eventually shot down by the military and crash-lands in a cemetery unharmed. Although he is depressed by the failure of his plan, he regains his old spirit. Meanwhile, Sally attempts to free Santa, but is captured by Oogie, Jack slips into the lair, frees them, and confronts Oogie. Jack apologizes to Santa for his actions, and Santa assures Jack that he can fix things, the townspeople of Halloween Town celebrate Jacks return, and snow falls over Halloween Town, a sign of reconciliation between Santa and Jack
The Nightmare Before Christmas
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Original theatrical release poster
The Nightmare Before Christmas
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Chris Sarandon, the speaking voice of
Jack Skellington.
The Nightmare Before Christmas
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Director Henry Selick (left) and producer Tim Burton (right) on the Nightmare Before Christmas set.
12.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
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Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a 1988 American fantasy neo-noir film directed by Robert Zemeckis, produced by Frank Marshall and Robert Watts, and written by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman. The film is based on Gary K. Wolfs 1981 novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit, the film stars Bob Hoskins, Christopher Lloyd, Charles Fleischer, Stubby Kaye, and Joanna Cassidy. Combining live-action and animation, the film is set in Hollywood during the late 1940s in a timeline where animated characters really exist. The story follows Eddie Valiant, a detective who must exonerate Toon Roger Rabbit. Walt Disney Pictures purchased the rights for Who Framed Roger Rabbits story in 1981. Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman wrote two drafts of the script before Disney brought in executive producer Steven Spielberg, and his production company, Zemeckis was brought on to direct the film, and Canadian animator Richard Williams was hired to supervise the animation sequences. Production was moved from Los Angeles to Elstree Studios in England to accommodate Williams, while filming, the production budget began to rapidly expand and the shooting schedule ran longer than expected. Disney released the film through its Touchstone Pictures division on June 22,1988, to critical and commercial success, the film brought a renewed interest in the Golden Age of American animation, spearheading modern American animation and the Disney Renaissance. In 2016, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant. In 1947, toons act out theatrical cartoon shorts as with films, they regularly interact with real people and animals and reside in Toontown. Maroon, head of Maroon Cartoon Studios, is concerned about the recent poor acting performances of one of his biggest stars, Roger Rabbit. After watching Jessica perform at the underground Ink & Paint Club, Valiant secretly takes photographs of her and Acme playing patty-cake in her dressing room, Maroon suggests to Roger that he should leave Jessica, but a drunken Roger refuses and flees. The next morning, Acme is discovered dead at his factory by the Los Angeles Police Department with a safe dropped on his head, and evidence points to Roger being responsible. While investigating, Valiant meets Judge Doom, Toontowns Superior Court judge, who has created a substance capable of killing a toon, a toxic Dip made of turpentine, acetone, and benzene. Valiant runs into Rogers toon co-star, Baby Herman, who believes Roger is innocent and that Acmes missing will and he then finds Roger hiding in his office, who begs him to help exonerate him. Valiant reluctantly hides Roger in a bar where his ex-girlfriend, Dolores. Later, Jessica approaches Valiant and says that Maroon had forced her to pose for the photographs so that he could blackmail Acme, Doom and his toon-weasel henchmen discover Roger, but he and Valiant escape with Benny, an anthropomorphic taxicab. They flee to a theater, where Valiant explains to Roger that a toon killed Teddy before he fled to Toontown
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
–
Theatrical release poster by
Steven Chorney
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
–
Bob Hoskins played the role of Eddie Valiant; this would go on to become one of his most notable roles.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
–
Who Framed Roger Rabbit marked the first time that
Disney 's
Mickey Mouse and
Warner Bros. '
Bugs Bunny appeared on screen together.
13.
Range voting
–
Range voting or score voting is a voting method for single-seat elections, in which voters give each candidate a score, the scores are added, and the candidate with the highest total is elected. It has been described by other names including the point system, ratings summation, 0-99 voting, average voting. It is a type of cardinal voting method, a crude form of range voting was apparently used in some elections in Ancient Sparta, by measuring how loudly the crowd shouted for different candidates. This has an analog of using clapometers in some television shows. Sports such as gymnastics rate competitors on a scale, although the fact that judges ratings are public makes it less likely for them to engage in blatant tactical voting. A multi-winner variant, re-weighted range voting, is used to select the nominees for the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. Range voting uses a ratings ballot, that is, each voter rates each candidate with a number within a specified range, in the simplest system, all candidates must be rated. The scores for each candidate are then summed, and the candidate with the highest sum is the winner, some systems allow voters to explicitly abstain from rating certain candidates, as opposed to implicitly giving the lowest number of points to unrated candidates. In this case, a score would be the average rating from voters who did rate this candidate. However, some method must then be used to exclude candidates who received too few votes, in some competitions subject to judges scores, a truncated mean is used to remove extreme scores. Another method of counting ratings ballots is to find the score of each candidate. This method is referred to as Majority Judgment. It could have the effect of reducing the incentive to exaggerate, a potential disadvantage is that multiway exact ties for winner may become common, although a method exists in Majority Judgment to break such ties. In conventional range voting, these ties would be extremely rare, another consequence of using medians is that adding an all-zero ballot can alter the election winner, which is arguably a disadvantage. The claimed advantages are a disincentive against strategic exaggeration, and a majority winner between the top two, Range voting in which only two different votes may be submitted is equivalent to approval voting. As with approval voting, range voters must weigh the impact on their favorite candidate of ranking other candidates highly. Imagine that Tennessee is having an election on the location of its capital, the population of Tennessee is concentrated around its four major cities, which are spread throughout the state. For this example, suppose that the entire lives in these four cities
Range voting
–
On a Range ballot, the voter scores all the candidates
14.
George Pal
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George Pal was a Hungarian-American animator, film director and producer, principally associated with the science-fiction genre. He became an American citizen after emigrating from Europe and he was nominated for Academy Awards for seven consecutive years and received an honorary award in 1944. This makes him the second-most nominated Hungarian exile after Miklós Rózsa and he was born in Cegléd, Austria–Hungary, the son of György Pál Marczincsak, Sr. and his wife Maria. He graduated from the Budapest Academy of Arts in 1928, from 1928 to 1931, he made films for Hunnia Films of Budapest, Hungary. At the age of 23 in 1931, he married Elisabeth Zsoka Grandjean, during this time, he patented the Pal-Doll technique. In 1933, he worked in Prague, in 1934, he made an advertisement in his hotel room in Paris. He started to use Pal-Doll techniques in Eindhoven, in a former butchery and he left Germany as the Nazis came to power. He made five films before 1939 for the British company Horlicks Malted Milk, in December of that year, aged 32, he emigrated from Europe to the United States, and began work for Paramount Pictures. At this time, his friend Walter Lantz helped him obtain American citizenship, Pal then switched to live-action film-making with The Great Rupert. He himself directed Tom Thumb, The Time Machine, and The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm. In May 1980, he died in Beverly Hills, California, of an attack at the age of 72. The Voyage of the Berg, on which he was working at the time, was never completed and he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1722 Vine St. In 1980, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences founded the George Pal Lecture on Fantasy in Film series in his memory, Pals Puppetoons Tulips Shall Grow and John Henry and the Inky-Poo were added to the Library of Congress 1997 and 2015 National Film Registry. One of the Tubby the Tuba models along with a frog, the Academy Film Archive has preserved several of George Pals films, including Jasper and the Beanstalk, John Henry and the Inky Poo, and Radio Röhren Revolution. Lao The Power Doc Savage, The Man of Bronze, after Worlds Collide Odd John Logans Run When the Sleeper Wakes War of the Worlds Unfinished TV pilot Doc Savage, The Arch Enemy of Evil The Time Traveller aka Time Machine II. A novelization with Joe Morhaim was published posthumously in 1981, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz The Disappearance Voyage of the Berg The Fantasy Film Worlds of George Pal The Puppetoon Movie Gail Morgan Hickman. The Films of George Pal ISBN 0-498-01960-8, mars in the Movies, A History. Jefferson, North Carolina, McFarland & Company,2016
George Pal
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George Pal in 1979
15.
George Lucas
–
George Walton Lucas Jr. is an American filmmaker and entrepreneur. He is best known as the creator of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises, as well as the founder of Lucasfilm and he was the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Lucasfilm, before selling it to The Walt Disney Company in 2012. Upon graduating from the University of Southern California in 1967, Lucas co-founded American Zoetrope with fellow filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, Lucas wrote and directed THX1138, based on his earlier student short Electronic Labyrinth, THX1138 4EB, which was a critical success but a financial failure. His next work as a writer-director was the film, American Graffiti, inspired by his teen years in early 1960s Modesto, California, the film was critically and commercially successful, and received five Academy Award nominations including Best Picture. Following the first Star Wars film, Lucas produced and co-wrote the following installments in the trilogy, The Empire Strikes Back, along with Steven Spielberg, Lucas co-created and wrote the Indiana Jones films Raiders of the Lost Ark, Temple of Doom, and The Last Crusade. Lucas also produced and/or wrote a variety of films through Lucasfilm in the 1980s and 1990s, Lucas also returned to directing with the Star Wars prequel trilogy, consisting of The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith. He later collaborated on the story for the Indiana Jones sequel Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, five of Lucass seven features are among the 100 highest-grossing movies at the North American box office, adjusted for ticket-price inflation. Lucas is one of the American film industrys most financially successful filmmakers, Lucas is considered a significant figure in the New Hollywood era. Lucas was born and raised in Modesto, California, the son of Dorothy Ellinore Lucas and George Walton Lucas and he is of German, Swiss-German, English, Scottish, and distant Dutch and French descent. Growing up, Lucas had a passion for cars and motor racing, on June 12,1962, while driving his souped-up Autobianchi Bianchina, another driver broadsided him, flipping over his car, nearly killing him, causing him to lose interest in racing as a career. He attended Modesto Junior College, where he studied anthropology, sociology and he also began shooting with an 8 mm camera, including filming car races. At this time, Lucas and his friend John Plummer became interested in Canyon Cinema, screenings of underground, avant-garde 16 mm filmmakers like Jordan Belson, Stan Brakhage, and Bruce Conner. Lucas and Plummer also saw classic European films of the time, including Jean-Luc Godards Breathless, François Truffauts Jules et Jim, thats when George really started exploring, Plummer said. Through his interest in racing, Lucas met renowned cinematographer Haskell Wexler, another race enthusiast. Wexler, later to work with Lucas on several occasions, was impressed by Lucas talent, George had a very good eye, and he thought visually, he recalled. Lucas then transferred to the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, USC was one of the earliest universities to have a school devoted to motion picture film. During the years at USC, Lucas shared a room with Randal Kleiser. Along with classmates such as Walter Murch, Hal Barwood, and John Milius and he also became good friends with fellow acclaimed student filmmaker and future Indiana Jones collaborator, Steven Spielberg
George Lucas
–
Lucas in 2009
George Lucas
–
Director
Jim Henson (left) and Lucas (right) working on
Labyrinth in 1986.
George Lucas
–
Lucas at the Time 100 2006 gala
16.
James Cameron
–
James Francis Jim Cameron is a Canadian filmmaker, director, producer, screenwriter, inventor, engineer, philanthropist, and deep-sea explorer. He first found success with the science fiction action film The Terminator. He then became a popular Hollywood director and was hired to write and direct Aliens and he found further critical acclaim for his use of special effects in Terminator 2, Judgment Day. After his film True Lies Cameron took on his biggest film at the time, Titanic, despite Avatar being his only movie made to date in 3D, Cameron is the most successful 3D film-maker in terms of box-office revenue. In the time between making Titanic and Avatar, Cameron spent several years creating many documentary films and co-developed the digital 3D Fusion Camera System, described by a biographer as part scientist and part artist, Cameron has also contributed to underwater filming and remote vehicle technologies. On March 26,2012, Cameron reached the bottom of the Mariana Trench and he is the first person to do this in a solo descent, and is only the third person to do so ever. In total, Camerons directorial efforts have grossed approximately US$2 billion in North America, not adjusted for inflation, Camerons Titanic and Avatar are the two highest-grossing films of all time at $2.19 billion and $2.78 billion respectively. Cameron also holds the achievement of having directed two of the three films in history to gross over $2 billion worldwide, in March 2011, he was named Hollywoods top earner by Vanity Fair, with estimated 2010 earnings of $257 million. Cameron was born in 1954 in Kapuskasing, Ontario, Canada, the son of Shirley, an artist and nurse, and Phillip Cameron and his paternal great-great-great-grandfather emigrated from Balquhidder, Scotland, in 1825. Cameron grew up in Chippawa, Ontario, and attended Stamford Collegiate School in Niagara Falls and his family moved to Brea, California in 1971, when Cameron was 17 years old. He dropped out of Sonora High School, then attended Brea Olinda High School to further his secondary education, Cameron enrolled at Fullerton College, a two-year community college, in 1973 to study physics. He switched to English, then dropped out before the start of the fall 1974 semester, next, he worked several jobs, including as a truck driver, writing when he had time. That way I could sit down and read it, and if theyd let me photocopy it, Cameron quit his job as a truck driver to enter the film industry after seeing Star Wars in 1977. When Cameron read Syd Fields book Screenplay, it occurred to him that science and art was possible. They raised money, rented camera, lenses, film stock and they dismantled the camera to understand how to operate it and spent the first half-day of the shoot trying to figure out how to get it running. He was the director, writer, producer, and production designer for Xenogenesis and he then became a production assistant on a film called Rock and Roll High School, though uncredited, in 1979. While continuing to educate himself in film-making techniques, Cameron started working as a miniature-model maker at Roger Corman Studios, making rapidly produced, low-budget productions taught Cameron to work efficiently and effectively. He soon found employment as an art director in the sci-fi movie Battle Beyond the Stars and he did special effects work design and direction on John Carpenters Escape from New York, acted as production designer on Galaxy of Terror, and consulted on the design of Android
James Cameron
–
Cameron in June 2012
James Cameron
–
Cameron in September 1986
James Cameron
–
The producing team behind Aliens, James Cameron and Gale Ann Hurd
James Cameron
–
Cameron promoting Avatar during the 2009
San Diego Comic-Con
17.
Richard Fleischer
–
Richard O. Fleischer was an American film director. Fleischer was born in Brooklyn, the son of Essie and animator/producer Max Fleischer, after graduating from Brown University, he went to Yale School of Drama, where he met his future wife, Mary Dickson. His film career began in 1942 at the RKO studio, directing shorts, documentaries, and compilations of forgotten silent features, Fleischer moved to Los Angeles and was assigned his first feature, Child of Divorce, a vehicle for Sharyn Moffett. It was successful so Fleischer was assigned to another Moffett vehicle, Banjo, RKO agreed to loan him out to Stanley Kramer and Carl Foreman, who had admired Child of Divorce, to make So This Is New York for the Kramer Company at Columbia. Back at RKO Fleischer made a based on a story by Foreman. His other early films were taut film noir such as Bodyguard, Follow Me Quietly, Armored Car Robbery. Fleischer says he tried to graduate to A pictures during this time. When Norman Krasna and Jerry Wald set up at RKO, they asked Fleischer to see if he could make an out of any of the film shot for Its All True. Another project that did not come to fruition was a film starring Al Jolson, rKOs owner, Howard Hughes, was impressed by The Narrow Margin and hired Fleischer to re-shoot portions of His Kind of Woman. Hughes was pleased with the results and agreed to loan out Fleischer to Stanley Kramer to make The Happy Time, Fleischer was put under contract to the Kramer Company. The Happy Time was successful and Fleischer was meant to follow it with another for Kramer and Foreman, however the film was never made because the partnership between Foreman and Kramer ended. He accepted an offer from MGM to make Arena, a story starring Gig Young. In 1954, he was chosen by Walt Disney to direct 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea starring Kirk Douglas, James Mason, Paul Lukas and he was able to accept an offer to direct a thriller for Buddy Adler at 20th Century Fox, Violent Saturday. This was successful and Fox signed Fleischer to a term contract. He would work for that studio for the fifteen years. Fleischers first film under his new contract with Fox was The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing and he then made Bandido, a Western with Robert Mitchum. Kirk Douglas hired Fleischer to make The Vikings, which was big hit. Back at Fox, Fleischer made Compulsion, a drama with Orson Welles for producer Richard D. Zanuck
Richard Fleischer
–
Richard O. Fleischer
18.
Steven Spielberg
–
Steven Allan Spielberg, KBE, OMRI is an American director, producer, and screenwriter. He is considered one of the pioneers of the New Hollywood era. He is also one of the co-founders of DreamWorks Studios, in a career spanning more than four decades, Spielbergs films have spanned many themes and genres. His other films include Jurassic Park, A. I, artificial Intelligence, and War of the Worlds. Spielberg won the Academy Award for Best Director for Schindlers List and Saving Private Ryan, three of Spielbergs films—Jaws, E. T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and Jurassic Park—achieved box office records, originated and came to epitomize the blockbuster film. The unadjusted gross of all Spielberg-directed films exceeds $9 billion worldwide and his personal net worth is estimated to be more than $3 billion. Spielberg was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, to an Orthodox Jewish family and his mother, Leah Posner, was a restaurateur and concert pianist, and his father, Arnold Spielberg, was an electrical engineer involved in the development of computers. His paternal grandparents were immigrants from Ukraine who settled in Cincinnati in the first decade of the 1900s, in 1950, his family moved to Haddon Township, New Jersey when his father took a job with RCA. Three years later, the moved to Phoenix, Arizona. Spielberg attended Hebrew school from 1953 to 1957, in classes taught by Rabbi Albert L. Lewis, as a child, Spielberg faced difficulty reconciling being an Orthodox Jew with the perception of him by other children he played with. It isnt something I enjoy admitting, he said, but when I was seven, eight, nine years old, God forgive me. I was embarrassed by the perception of my parents Jewish practices. I was never really ashamed to be Jewish, but I was uneasy at times, Spielberg also said he suffered from acts of anti-Semitic prejudice and bullying, In high school, I got smacked and kicked around. His first home movie was of a wreck involving his toy Lionel trains. Throughout his early teens, and after entering school, Spielberg continued to make amateur 8 mm adventure films. In 1958, he became a Boy Scout and fulfilled a requirement for the merit badge by making a nine-minute 8 mm film entitled The Last Gunfight. Years later, Spielberg recalled to an interviewer, My dads still-camera was broken. He said yes, and I got an idea to do a Western, I made it and got my merit badge
Steven Spielberg
–
Spielberg at the
2013 Cannes Film Festival
Steven Spielberg
–
Steven Spielberg and
Chandran Rutnam on a location in Sri Lanka during the filming of
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
Steven Spielberg
–
Spielberg in March 1990
Steven Spielberg
–
Spielberg in 2011, at the Paris premiere of
The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn.
19.
Peter Jackson
–
Sir Peter Robert Jackson ONZ KNZM is a New Zealand film director, screenwriter and film producer. He is best known as the director, writer, and producer of The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit trilogy and he also produced District 9, The Adventures of Tintin, The Secret of the Unicorn, and the documentary West of Memphis. Jackson began his career with the horror comedy Bad Taste. He shared a nomination for Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay with his partner Fran Walsh for Heavenly Creatures, Jackson has been awarded three Academy Awards in his career, including the award for Best Director in 2003. He has also received a Golden Globe, four Saturn Awards and his production company is Wingnut Films, and his most regular collaborators are co-writers and producers Walsh and Philippa Boyens. Jackson was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2002 and he was later knighted by Anand Satyanand, the Governor-General of New Zealand, at a ceremony in Wellington in April 2010. In December 2014, Jackson was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Jackson was born on 31 October 1961 in Wellington and was raised at the nearby coastal town of Pukerua Bay. His parents—Joan, a worker and housewife, and William Bill Jackson. Bill Jackson was a veteran of the Siege of Malta in World War II, as a child, Jackson was a keen film fan, growing up on Ray Harryhausen films, as well as finding inspiration in the television series Thunderbirds and Monty Pythons Flying Circus. After a family gave the Jacksons a Super 8 cine-camera with Peter in mind. Jackson has long cited King Kong as his film. Most notable though was a 20-minute short called The Valley, which won him a prize because of the shots he used. In school, Jackson expressed no interest in sports and his classmates also remember him wearing a duffle coat with an obsession verging on religious. He had no training in film-making, but learned about editing, special effects and make-up largely through his own trial. As a young adult, Jackson discovered the work of author J. R. R. Tolkien after watching The Lord of the Rings, when he was 16 years old, Jackson left school and began working full-time as a photo-engraver for a Wellington newspaper, The Evening Post. For the seven years he worked there, Jackson lived at home with his parents so he could save as much money as possible to spend on film equipment. After two years of work Jackson bought a 16 mm camera, and began shooting a film later became Bad Taste. Jackson has long cited several films as influences and it is well known that Jackson has a passion for King Kong, often citing it as his favourite film and as the film that inspired him early in his life
Peter Jackson
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Jackson at the 2014
San Diego Comic-Con International
Peter Jackson
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Jackson in 2003, at the premiere of
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in
Wellington
Peter Jackson
–
Jackson at the 2009
San Diego Comic-Con International
20.
Robert Zemeckis
–
Robert Lee Zemeckis is an American filmmaker and screenwriter frequently credited as an innovator in visual effects. In the 1990s he diversified into more dramatic fare, including 1994s Forrest Gump, the films he has directed have ranged across a wide variety of genres, for both adults and families. Zemeckis was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Rosa and his father was Lithuanian American and his mother was Italian. Zemeckis grew up on the side of the city. He attended a Roman Catholic grade school and Fenger Academy High School, Zemeckis has said the truth was that in my family there was no art. I mean, there was no music, there were no books, the only thing I had that was inspirational, was television—and it actually was. As a child, he loved television and was fascinated by his parents 8 mm film movie camera. Starting off by filming family events like birthdays and holidays, he began producing narrative films with his friends that incorporated stop-motion work. Along with enjoying movies, Zemeckis remained an avid TV watcher and you hear so much about the problems with television, he said, but I think that it saved my life. After seeing Bonnie and Clyde with his father and being influenced by it. His parents disapproved of the idea, Zemeckis later said, But only in the sense that they were concerned, for my family and my friends and the world that I grew up in, this was the kind of dream that really was impossible. My parents would sit there and say, Dont you see where you come from and you cant be a movie director. I guess maybe some of it I felt I had to do in spite of them, Zemeckis applied only to University of Southern Californias School of Cinematic Arts, and went into the Film School on the strength of an essay and a music video based on a Beatles song. Not having heard from the university itself, Zemeckis called and was told he had rejected because of his average grades. The director gave an impassioned plea to the official on the line, promising to go to summer school and improve his studies. Arriving at USC that fall, Zemeckis encountered a program that was, in his words, the classes were difficult, with professors constantly stressing how hard the movie business was. Zemeckis remembered not being much fazed by this, citing the healthy cynicism that had been bred into him from his Chicago upbringing, while at USC, Zemeckis developed a close friendship with the writer Bob Gale, who was also a student there. Gale later recalled, The graduate students at USC had this veneer of intellectualism. So Bob and we werent interested in the French New Wave
Robert Zemeckis
–
Zemeckis at the 2015
Tokyo International Film Festival.
Robert Zemeckis
Robert Zemeckis
–
Overseeing the filming of Contact in 1997.
Robert Zemeckis
–
Zemeckis with wife Leslie Harter, at the French premiere of
Flight, January 2013.
21.
Stanley Kubrick
–
Stanley Kubrick was an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer, editor, and photographer. He is frequently cited as one of the greatest and most influential directors in cinematic history, Kubrick was born and raised in the Bronx, New York City, and attended William Howard Taft High School from 1941 to 1945. This was followed by two collaborations with Kirk Douglas, the war picture Paths of Glory and the historical epic Spartacus. His reputation as a filmmaker in Hollywood grew, and he was approached by Marlon Brando to film what would become One-Eyed Jacks, though Brando eventually decided to direct it himself. His home at Childwickbury Manor in Hertfordshire, which he shared with his wife Christiane, became his workplace, where he did his writing, research, editing, and management of production details. This allowed him to have almost complete control over his films. His first British productions were two films with Peter Sellers, Lolita and Dr. Strangelove and he often asked for several dozen retakes of the same scene in a movie, which resulted in many conflicts with his casts. Despite the resulting notoriety among actors, many of Kubricks films broke new ground in cinematography, Steven Spielberg has referred to the film as his generations big bang, and it is regarded as one of the greatest films ever made. For the 18th-century period film Barry Lyndon, Kubrick obtained lenses developed by Zeiss for NASA, with The Shining, he became one of the first directors to make use of a Steadicam for stabilized and fluid tracking shots. His last film, Eyes Wide Shut, was completed shortly before his death in 1999, Stanley Kubrick was born on July 26,1928, in the Lying-In Hospital at 307 Second Avenue in Manhattan, New York City. He was the first of two children of Jacob Leonard Kubrick, known as Jack or Jacques, and his wife Sadie Gertrude Kubrick, known as Gert and his sister, Barbara Mary Kubrick, was born in May 1934. At Stanleys birth, the Kubricks lived in an apartment at 2160 Clinton Avenue in the Bronx, although his parents had been married in a Jewish ceremony, Kubrick did not have a religious upbringing, and would later profess an atheistic view of the universe. By the district standards of the West Bronx, the family was fairly wealthy, soon after his sisters birth, Kubrick began schooling in Public School 3 in the Bronx, and moved to Public School 90 in June 1938. Although his IQ was discovered to be average, his attendance was poor. He displayed an interest in literature from an age, and began reading Greek and Roman myths. When Kubrick was 12, his father Jack taught him chess, the game remained a lifelong interest of Kubricks, appearing in many scenes of his films. Kubrick himself, who became a member of the United States Chess Federation, explained that chess helped him develop patience. At the age of 13, Kubricks father bought him a Graflex camera and he became friends with a neighbor, Marvin Traub, who shared his passion for photography
Stanley Kubrick
–
Kubrick with showgirl Rosemary Williams in 1949
Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick
–
Kubrick photo of Chicago taken as photographer for Look magazine, 1949
Stanley Kubrick
–
Kubrick at the age of 21
22.
2001: A Space Odyssey (film)
–
2001, A Space Odyssey is a 1968 epic science-fiction film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick. The screenplay was written by Kubrick and Arthur C, Clarke, partially inspired by Clarkes short story The Sentinel. Clarke concurrently wrote the novel 2001, A Space Odyssey, published soon after the film was released, the film follows a voyage to Jupiter with the sentient computer Hal after the discovery of a mysterious black monolith affecting human evolution. It deals with the themes of existentialism, human evolution, technology, artificial intelligence and it is noted for its scientifically accurate depiction of space flight, pioneering special effects, and ambiguous imagery. It uses sound and minimal dialogue in place of narrative techniques, the soundtrack consists of classical music such as Gayane Ballet Suite, The Blue Danube. Production was subcontracted to Kubricks production company, and care was taken that the film would be sufficiently British to qualify for subsidy from the Eady Levy, Kubrick had shot his previous two films in England and decided to settle there permanently during filming. 2001, A Space Odyssey initially received mixed reactions from critics and audiences and it was nominated for four Academy Awards and received one for its visual effects. The sequel 2010 was released in 1984, directed by Peter Hyams, Today,2001, A Space Odyssey is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential films ever made. In 1991, it was deemed culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant by the United States Library of Congress, in 2010, it was named the greatest film of all time by The Moving Arts Film Journal. In an African desert millions of years ago, a tribe of ape-men is driven away from their water hole by a rival tribe and they awaken to find a featureless black monolith has appeared before them. Guided in some fashion by the monolith, they learn how to use a bone as a weapon and drive their rivals away from the water hole. Millions of years later, a Pan Am space plane carries Dr. Heywood Floyd to a station orbiting Earth for a layover on his trip to Clavius Base. After Floyd has a call with his daughter, his Soviet scientist friend. At Clavius, Floyd heads a meeting of base personnel, apologizing for the cover story. His mission is to investigate a recently found artifact buried four years ago. Floyd and others ride in a Moonbus to the artifact, an identical to the one encountered by the ape-men. Sunlight strikes the monolith and a loud high-pitched radio signal is heard, eighteen months later, the United States spacecraft Discovery One is bound for Jupiter. On board are mission pilots and scientists Dr. David Bowman and Dr. Frank Poole, most of Discoverys operations are controlled by the ships computer, HAL9000, referred to by the crew as Hal
2001: A Space Odyssey (film)
–
Theatrical release poster by
Robert McCall
2001: A Space Odyssey (film)
–
Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke in Kubrick's apartment office on Central Park West, New York, during the writing of 2001
2001: A Space Odyssey (film)
–
The "centrifuge" set used for filming scenes depicting interior of the spaceship Discovery
2001: A Space Odyssey (film)
–
The "Star Gate" sequence was one of many ground-breaking visual effects. It was primarily for these that Stanley Kubrick won his only personal
Academy Award.
23.
Douglas Trumbull
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Douglas Huntley Trumbull is an American film director, special effects supervisor, and inventor. Douglas was born in Los Angeles and he is the son of Donald Trumbull who created visual effects for the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz as well as later movies including Silent Running and Star Wars. Douglas Trumbulls early work was at Graphic Films in Los Angeles, the small animation and graphic arts studio produced a film called To the Moon and Beyond about spaceflight for the 1964 New York Worlds Fair. Trumbull, the son of an engineer and an artist, worked at Graphic Films as an illustrator. The spaceflight film caught the attention of director Stanley Kubrick, Kubrick hired director Con Pederson from Graphic Films, and Trumbull then cold-called Kubrick after obtaining the directors home phone number from Pederson. Kubrick hired Trumbull for the production of 2001, A Space Odyssey, Trumbulls first task was to create the dozens of animations seen in the data display screens in the Aries moon shuttle and the Discovery. They looked like computer graphics, but they were created by photographing and animating reproductions of charts, Trumbull initially created the shots using a number of Rube Goldberg-like contraptions he built with gears and motors ordered from a scientific equipment supply house. Kubrick gave the effects technician creative freedom and encouragement, He would say. What do you need to do it, and I would have complete carte blanche, which was wild as a young guy, Trumbull recalled. I was 23–24 when I started the movie, and was 25 by the time I was doing the Star Gate and he would say, What do you need. And Id say, Well, I need to go into town and buy some weird bearings and some stuff and he would send me off to town in his Bentley, with a driver, I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. We were struggling with the Star Gate, although Trumbulls association with Kubrick was a huge boost for his career, he swore afterwards that he would never work for someone else again, in part because Kubrick was a hell of a taskmaster. His level of quality-control bordered on perfectionism, Trumbull was often incorrectly credited in print as being the sole special-effects creator for 2001. Whenever this happened, he received a call shortly thereafter from an irritated Kubrick. Though this created a relationship for many years, Trumbull said after Kubricks death that Kubrick was a genius. In 1969 Trumbull was filming the annual Flying Saucer Convention in Giant Rock California and this evolved into a full length project initially called Giant Rock, Rutabaga Deluxe, and then Saturation 70, An Ecological Horror Fantasy. The star of the film was a five year old Jason Jones, some footage includes a battle with a Green Beret and a Viet Cong in a supermarket. Trumbulls partner on the film was Anthony Foutz, a company called Dimension V took over backing of the film
Douglas Trumbull
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Trumbull at the annual FMX Conference in 2012
Douglas Trumbull
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Trumbull discussing frame rates with Ray Feeney (left) and Bill Desowitz at FMX 2012
24.
The Jazz Singer
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The Jazz Singer is a 1927 American musical film. Directed by Alan Crosland and produced by Warner Bros, the film depicts the fictional story of Jakie Rabinowitz, a young man who defies the traditions of his devout Jewish family. After singing popular tunes in a garden he is punished by his father. Some years later, now calling himself Jack Robin, he has become a jazz singer. He attempts to build a career as an entertainer but his professional ambitions ultimately come into conflict with the demands of his home and heritage. Darryl F. Zanuck won an Honorary Academy Award for producing the film, in 1996, The Jazz Singer was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry of culturally, historically or aesthetically significant motion pictures. In 1998, the film was chosen in voting conducted by the American Film Institute as one of the best American films of all time, ranking at number ninety. Cantor Rabinowitz wants his son to carry on the family tradition. But down at the garden, thirteen-year-old Jakie Rabinowitz is performing so-called jazz tunes. Moisha Yudelson spots the boy and tells Jakies father, who drags him home, Jakie clings to his mother, Sara, as his father declares, Ill teach him better than to debase the voice God gave him. Jakie threatens, If you whip me again, Ill run away —, after the whipping, Jakie kisses his mother goodbye and, true to his word, runs away. At the Yom Kippur service, Rabinowitz mournfully tells a fellow celebrant, My son was to stand at my side and sing tonight –, as the sacred Kol Nidre is sung, Jakie sneaks back home to retrieve a picture of his loving mother. About 10 years later, Jakie has changed his name to the more assimilated Jack Robin, Jack is called up from his table at a cabaret to perform on stage. Jack wows the crowd with his energized rendition, afterward, he is introduced to the beautiful Mary Dale, a musical theater dancer. There are lots of singers, but you have a tear in your voice, she says. With her help, Jack eventually gets his big break, a part in the new musical April Follies. Back at the family home Jack left long ago, the elder Rabinowitz instructs a young student in the traditional cantorial art. Jack appears and tries to explain his point of view, and his love of modern music, as he leaves, Jack makes a prediction, I came home with a heart full of love, but you dont want to understand
The Jazz Singer
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theatrical release poster
The Jazz Singer
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Jack and his mother (
Eugenie Besserer)
The Jazz Singer
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Jack Robin on stage, in a publicity shot representing the movie's final scene
The Jazz Singer
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A
blackfaced Al Jolson starring in Robinson Crusoe, Jr. —the performance that inspired the story that led to the play that became the movie The Jazz Singer
25.
The Rains Came
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The Rains Came is a 1939 20th Century Fox film based on an American novel by Louis Bromfield. The film was directed by Clarence Brown and stars Tyrone Power, Myrna Loy, George Brent, Brenda Joyce, Nigel Bruce, a remake of the film was released in 1955 under the name The Rains of Ranchipur. The story centers on the redemption of its lead female character, George Brent is Tom Ransome, an artist who leads a rather dissolute if socially active life in the town of Ranchipur, India. His routine is shattered with the arrival of his former lover, Lady Edwina first sets out to seduce, then gradually falls in love with, Major Rama Safti who represents the new India. Ranchipur is devastated by an earthquake, which causes a flood, Lord Esketh dies and Lady Esketh renounces her hedonistic life in favor of helping the sick alongside Major Safti. Unfortunately, she becomes infected and dies, making it possible for Safti to become the ruler of a kingdom that he will presumably reform, in the course of the story, a missionarys daughter, Fern Simon, and Ransome also fall in love. Bannerjee Mary Nash as Miss MacDaid Jane Darwell as Aunt Phoebe - Mrs. Smiley Marjorie Rambeau as Mrs. Simon Henry Travers as Rev. Homer Smiley H. B, Warner as Maharajah Laura Hope Crews as Lily Hoggett-Egburry William Royle as Raschid Ali Khan C. Montague Shaw as General Keith The casting apparently was a lengthy process, Loy and Brown were loaned to 20th Century Fox from MGM. Brent was also on loan from his studio of Warner Bros. The only cast member who was chosen for the role he or she played was Ouspenskaya. She later claimed that she learned all she needed to know about impersonating Indian royalty from her acquaintance with the Russian Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia, the film is noted for a number of unusual features. Loy and Bruce are cast against type, loys stylish bad girl role was more akin to the sort that made Greta Garbo known than her own reputation as the ideal wife which MGM promoted for many years. Best remembered are the scenes dealing with the earthquake and floods and it was nominated for six Academy Awards, winning in the category of Special Effects and Sound Effects, for the earthquake and flood sequences. It became the first film to win an Academy Award for Best Special Effects, the Rains Came was remade in 1955 as The Rains of Ranchipur, with Richard Burton, Lana Turner and Fred MacMurray in the Power, Loy and Brent roles. The 1939 film uses the novels ending, the 1955 film does not. Sources, Film commentary on the DVD The Rains Came The Rains Came, A Novel Of Modern India
The Rains Came
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Theatrical release poster
26.
Gone with the Wind (film)
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Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American epic historical romance film adapted from Margaret Mitchells 1936 novel Gone with the Wind. It was produced by David O. Selznick of Selznick International Pictures, the leading roles are portrayed by Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable, Leslie Howard, and Olivia de Havilland. Production was difficult from the start, filming was delayed for two years due to Selznicks determination to secure Gable for the role of Rhett Butler, and the search for Scarlett led to 1,400 women being interviewed for the part. The original screenplay was written by Sidney Howard, but underwent many revisions by several writers in an attempt to get it down to a suitable length, the film received positive reviews upon its release in December 1939, although some reviewers found it dramatically lacking and bloated. The casting was praised and many reviewers found Leigh especially suited to her role as Scarlett. It set records for the number of wins and nominations at the time. The film was popular, becoming the highest-earning film made up to that point. When adjusted for inflation, it is still the most successful film in box-office history. It was re-released periodically throughout the 20th century and became ingrained in popular culture, part 1 On the eve of the American Civil War in 1861, Scarlett OHara lives at Tara, her familys cotton plantation in Georgia, with her parents and two sisters. At the Twelve Oaks party, Scarlett secretly declares her feelings to Ashley, Scarlett is incensed when she discovers another guest, Rhett Butler, has overheard their conversation, a smitten Rhett promises Scarlett he will keep her secret. The barbecue is disrupted by the declaration of war and the men rush to enlist, as Scarlett watches Ashley kiss Melanie goodbye, Melanies younger brother Charles proposes to her. Although she does not love him, Scarlett consents and they are married before he leaves to fight, Scarlett is widowed when Charles dies from a bout of pneumonia and measles while serving in the Confederate Army. Scarletts mother sends her to the Hamilton home in Atlanta to cheer her up, Scarlett, who should not attend a party while in mourning, attends a charity bazaar in Atlanta with Melanie where she runs into Rhett again, now a blockade runner for the Confederacy. Celebrating a Confederate victory and to money for the Confederate war effort. Rhett makes a large bid for Scarlett and, to the disapproval of the guests. The tide of war turns against the Confederacy after the Battle of Gettysburg in which many of the men of Scarletts town are killed, upon her return home, Scarlett finds Tara deserted, except for her father, her sisters, and two former slaves, Mammy and Pork. Scarlett learns that her mother has just died of fever and her father has become incompetent. With Tara pillaged by Union troops and the fields untended, Scarlett vows she will do anything for the survival of her family and herself
Gone with the Wind (film)
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Theatrical pre-release poster
Gone with the Wind (film)
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Scarlett and Rhett at the charity dance
Gone with the Wind (film)
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Clark Gable
Gone with the Wind (film)
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Vivien Leigh
27.
Only Angels Have Wings
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Only Angels Have Wings is a 1939 American drama film directed by Howard Hawks, and starring Cary Grant and Jean Arthur, based on a story written by Hawks. The film also marked the first significant role in a film for Rita Hayworth. It is generally regarded as being among Hawks finest films, particularly in its portrayal of the professionalism of the pilots of the film, its atmosphere, the supporting cast features Thomas Mitchell and Richard Barthelmess. Only Angels Have Wings was based on a number of real incidents witnessed by Hawks, the film inspired the 1983 television series Tales of the Gold Monkey, which in turn, inspired the 1990 television series TaleSpin. Bonnie Lee, an entertainer, arrives one day. Joe Souther, a pilot who had been planning to have dinner with her, Bonnie becomes infatuated with Carter, despite his fatalistic attitude about the dangerous mountain flying, and stays on in Barranca. The situation is complicated by the appearance of pilot Bat MacPherson and his wife, MacPherson is revealed to be an alias, his real surname is Kilgallen. He is infamous among the pilots for having once bailed out of a plane, leaving his mechanic — the brother of Kid Dabb, Carters best friend — to be killed in the resulting crash. When Geoff is forced to ground the Kid because of failing eyesight, he is short on pilots, MacPherson understands and accepts the setup, none of the other pilots would shed a tear if he were lost. Dutchy will secure a government mail contract that would put the airline on a solid financial footing. If he proves he can provide reliable mail service during a six month trial period, on the last day of Barranca Airways probation, bad weather closes the mountain pass. Geoff plans to fly a new Ford Trimotor over the mountains at an altitude of 17,000 feet, the Kid asks to go with him, as co-pilot. When Geoff refuses him, the Kid suggests letting the toss of a coin decide the matter, Geoff tries to grab the coin in mid-air. However, it lands on the floor, and he picks it up, realizing how important it is to the Kid, Geoff agrees to take him along. Just before leaving, Bonnie tries to talk Geoff out of going, as they hug, she takes his gun out of his holster, points it at him and tells Geoff that she wont let him go. Knowing that she cant stop him, she lowers the gun. However, when she drops the gun on the table, it accidentally fires, unable to fly, Geoff agrees to let Bat and the Kid try flying over the mountains instead of threading the pass. However, they are unable to climb above 15,600 feet before the plane stalls and falls off, the Kid radios Geoff and tells him that the plane could not get enough altitude to go over the mountains
Only Angels Have Wings
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Theatrical poster
Only Angels Have Wings
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Jean Arthur as Bonnie Lee
Only Angels Have Wings
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The
Pilgrim Model 100-B airliner was prominently featured against a backdrop of the
Rocky Mountains, standing in for the Andes Mountains.
28.
The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
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The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex is a 1939 American historical romantic drama film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, and Olivia de Havilland. The screenplay was written by Norman Reilly Raine and Aeneas MacKenzie and it was the fifth of nine films that Flynn and de Havilland starred in, while it was the second of his three with Davis. The supporting cast included Donald Crisp, Henry Daniell, Henry Stephenson, the score was composed by Erich Wolfgang Korngold, who later used a theme from the film in his Symphony in F sharp major. The Technicolor cinematography was by Sol Polito, and the costumes were designed by Orry-Kelly. The film was a Warner Bros, pictures production, and became the hit the studio had anticipated and returned a handsome profit. Among the films five Academy Award nominations was a nomination for Best Color Cinematography, Bette Davis was tapped to receive an Academy Award nomination for her role, however, she was nominated for Dark Victory instead. The Earl of Essex returns in triumph to London after having dealt the Spanish a crushing defeat at Cadiz. In London, an aging Queen Elizabeth awaits him with love and his envious rivals include Sir Robert Cecil, Lord Burghley, and Sir Walter Raleigh. His only friend at court is Francis Bacon, instead of the praise he is expecting, Essex is stunned when Elizabeth criticizes him for his failure to capture the Spanish treasure fleet as he had promised. When his co-commanders are rewarded, Essex protests, precipitating a break between the lovers, Elizabeth pines for him, but refuses to degrade herself by recalling him. But when Hugh ONeill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone revolts and routs the English forces in Ireland and she intends to make him Master of the Ordnance, a safe position at court. However, his enemies goad him into taking command of the army to be sent to quash the rebellion, Essex pursues Tyrone, though his letters to Elizabeth begging for much-needed men and supplies go unanswered. Unbeknownst to him, his letters to her, and hers to him, are being intercepted by Lady Penelope Grey, finally, Elizabeth, believing herself to be scorned, sends him an order to disband his army and return to London. Furious, Essex ignores it, orders a march and thinks he has finally cornered his foe. However, at a parley, Tyrone points out the rising from the English camp, signifying the destruction of the food. With no alternative, Essex accepts Tyrones terms, he and his men disarm, thinking he has been betrayed, he leads his army in a march on London, to seize the crown for himself. Elizabeth offers no resistance to his forces, but once alone with him and he then naively disbands his army and is quickly arrested and condemned to death. The day of his execution, Elizabeth can wait no longer and she summons him, hoping he will abandon his ambition in return for his life
The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
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Theatrical release poster
The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
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Bette Davis as Elizabeth.
29.
Union Pacific (film)
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Union Pacific is a 1939 American dramatic western film directed by Cecil B. DeMille, and starring Barbara Stanwyck and Joel McCrea, based on the novel Trouble Shooter by Western fiction author Ernest Haycox, the film is about the building of the railroad across the American West. Chief troubleshooter Jeff Butler has his hands full fighting Barrows agent, campeaus partner Dick Allen is Jeffs war buddy and rival suitor for engineers daughter Molly Monahan. Who will survive the effort to push the railroad through at any cost, Union Pacific was released in 1939 two months after John Fords Stagecoach, which film historians consider responsible for transforming the Hollywood Western from a mostly low budget, B film affair. Wheeler M. DeMilles film indeed took the genre to a new level, michael Coyne accordingly characterizes Union Pacific as a technological nation-linking endeavor in his book The Crowded Prairie, American National Identity In the Hollywood Western. Parts of the film were shot in Iron Springs, Utah, the golden spike used at the ceremony to mark the end of the construction was the same spike actually used in the May 10,1869 event, on loan from Stanford University. For the Indian attack on the train, Paramount hired 100 Navajo Indian extras, the company had rented many local Pinto horses for the filming of the Indian attack on the train. In order to operate the number of trains required by the production and this film is the official winner of the first ever Palme DOr at the Cannes Film Festival, although this was awarded in retrospect at the 2002 festival. The festival was to debut in 1939, but was cancelled due to World War II, the organizers of the 2002 festival presented part of the original 1939 selection to a professional jury of six members. The films were, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, La piste du nord, Lenin in 1918, The Four Feathers, The Wizard of Oz, Union Pacific, the film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Special Effects at the 12th Academy Awards. A special train transported DeMille, Stanwyck, and McCrea from Hollywood to Omaha, the trip took three days and made stops along the way, drawing large crowds. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt inaugurated the overall celebration by pressing a key at the White House in Washington, DC. An ad stated that the premiere, which involved parades, radio broadcasts, an antique train continued on a 15-day coast-to-coast promotional tour, stopping at 30 cities around the country. This film, along with The Sign of the Cross, Four Frightened People, Cleopatra, the film received a standalone DVD release in 2014 as part of Universals Vault Series line. Neither release has a selection or any additional features. Union Pacific at the Internet Movie Database Union Pacific at the TCM Movie Database
Union Pacific (film)
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Theatrical film poster
Union Pacific (film)
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Union Pacific
30.
The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)
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The film stars Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale. Notable for its use of Technicolor, fantasy storytelling, musical score and it was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, but lost to Gone with the Wind. It did win in two categories, including Best Original Song for Over the Rainbow and Best Original Score by Herbert Stothart. However, the film was a box office disappointment on its release, earning only $3,017,000 on a $2,777,000 budget. It was MGMs most expensive production at that time, and did not completely recoup the studios investment and turn a profit until theatrical re-releases starting in 1949. The film was named the most-viewed motion picture on television syndication by the Library of Congress, designation on the registry calls for efforts to preserve it for being culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant. It is also one of the few films on UNESCOs Memory of the World Register, the Wizard of Oz is often ranked on best-movie lists in critics and public polls. It is the source of many quotes referenced in popular culture. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming, noel Langley, Florence Ryerson, and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but uncredited contributions were made by others. The songs were written by Edgar Yip Harburg and Harold Arlen, the musical score and the incidental music were composed by Stothart. The film begins in Kansas, which is depicted in a sepia tone, Dorothy Gale lives with her dog Toto on the farm of her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry. Dorothys dog gets in trouble with a neighbor, Miss Almira Gulch. However, Dorothys family and the farmhands are all too busy to pay attention to her, Miss Gulch arrives with permission from the sheriff to have Toto euthanized. She takes him away, but he escapes and returns to Dorothy and they meet Professor Marvel, a phony but kindly fortune teller, who realizes Dorothy has run away and tricks her via his crystal ball into believing that Aunt Em is ill so that she must return home. She races home just as a tornado strikes. Unable to get into her familys storm cellar, she seeks safety in her bedroom, a wind-blown window sash hits her in the head, knocking her out. The house is picked up and sent spinning in the air by the twister, the farmhouse crashes in Munchkinland in the Land of Oz, where the film changes to Technicolor. Glinda the Good Witch of the North and the Munchkins welcome her as their heroine, as the house has landed on and killed the Wicked Witch of the East, leaving only her stocking feet exposed
The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)
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Theatrical release poster
The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)
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Dorothy (
Judy Garland, right) with
Glinda the Good Witch of the North (
Billie Burke)
The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)
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The film's main characters (left to right): the
Cowardly Lion,
Dorothy,
Scarecrow, and the
Tin Man
The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)
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Buddy Ebsen 's first makeup test as the Tin Man.
31.
The Thief of Bagdad (1940 film)
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The film starred child actor Sabu, Conrad Veidt, John Justin, and June Duprez. It was distributed in the US and the UK by United Artists, although produced by Alexander Kordas company London Films in London, due to the outbreak of World War II, the film was completed in California and was then distributed by United Artists. Thief of Bagdad won the Academy Awards for Cinematography, Art Direction and Special Effects and it was also nominated for Original Music Score. Although this production is a remake of the 1924 version, the two films have differences, most significantly the thief and the prince are separate characters in the 1940 version, the backstory for Thief of Bagdad is told in flashback, mimicking the style of the Arabian Nights. Ahmad, the sultan of Bagdad, is convinced by his evil Grand Vizier Jaffar to go out into the city disguised as a poor man to get to know his subjects. Jaffar then has Ahmad thrown into a dungeon, where he encounters the young thief Abu and they flee to Basra, where Ahmad meets its Princess. Jaffar journeys to Basra, for he too desires the Princess and her father, the Sultan, is fascinated by the magical mechanical flying horse that Jaffar, a skilled sorcerer, offers, he agrees to the proposed marriage. Upon hearing this, the Princess, now deeply in love with Ahmad, confronted by Ahmad, Jaffar magically blinds him and turns Abu into a dog, the spell can only be broken if Jaffar holds the Princess in his arms. The Princess is captured and sold in the slave market and she is bought secretly by Jaffar, but falls into a deep sleep from which he cannot rouse her. Ahmad is tricked by Jaffars servant Halima into awakening the Princess, Halima then lures her onto Jaffars ship by telling her that there is a doctor aboard who can cure Ahmads blindness. Jaffar informs the Princess about the spell, so she herself to be embraced, Ahmads sight is restored. They pursue in a boat, but Jaffar conjures up a storm that shipwrecks them. Abu awakes alone on a beach and finds a bottle. When he opens it, a genie appears. Embittered by his imprisonment, the genie informs Abu that he is going to kill him, the genie then offers to grant Abu three wishes if he will let him out again. The hungry boy uses his first wish to ask for sausages, the genie tells Abu that the Eye will show him the location of Ahmad. Abu fights off a giant spider while climbing the statue to steal the gem, the Princess persuades Jaffar to return her to Basra, she implores her father not to force her into the marriage. Furious when the Sultan agrees, Jaffar presents him with another toy, the Silver Maid
The Thief of Bagdad (1940 film)
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Film poster for 1947 Film Classics re-release
32.
The Blue Bird (1940 film)
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The Blue Bird is a 1940 B&W and Technicolor American fantasy film directed by Walter Lang. The screenplay by Walter Bullock was adapted from the 1908 play of the name by Maurice Maeterlinck. Despite being a box office flop and losing money, the film was nominated for two Academy Awards. It is available on both VHS and DVD, the setting is Germany in the late 18th century. Mytyl, the bratty and ungrateful daughter of a woodcutter, finds a unique bird in the Royal Forest, mother and Father are mortified at Mytyls behavior. That evening, Father is called on to report for duty the next morning in an unspecified war and that same night, Mytyl is visited in a dream by a fairy named Berylune who sends her and her brother Tyltyl to search for the Blue Bird of Happiness. To accompany them, the fairy magically transforms their dog Tylo, cat Tylette, and lantern into human form. The children have a number of adventures, they visit the past, have an adventure in the forest, experience the life of luxury, and see the future. The dream journey makes Mytyl awake as a kinder and gentler girl who has learned to appreciate all the comforts and joys of her home, in the morning, Father receives word that a truce has been called and he does not have to go to war. The film, although following the plot of the stage version, highly embellishes it. The opening black-and-white scenes and the war subplot were invented for the film, Mytyls selfishness, the basic trait of her personality, was a plot thread specifically written into the motion picture. It is not in the original play, the play begins with the children already asleep and the dream about to begin, there is no depiction of the familys daily life, as there is in the 1940 film. On Halloween 1939, Ekelunds costume caught fire from a lit jack-o-lantern and she died from her burns several days later and was buried in her costume from the film. Ekelund came from a business family, and her older sister was actress Jana Lund. Twentieth Century-Fox made the film as an answer to MGMs The Wizard of Oz, there is a myth that Shirley Temple was to be cast in Oz, however this is mostly untrue. She was considered, but only very briefly, executives at MGM wanted Shirley because she was a proven box office draw. Arthur Freed, a producer on Oz, wanted the role to go to rising child star Judy Garland. When producers listened to Shirley, they were unimpressed with her vocal talents, when Oz was a success, and shot Judy Garland to fame, Fox decided to create their own fantasy feature using Shirley Temple
The Blue Bird (1940 film)
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Theatrical release poster
33.
Boom Town (film)
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Boom Town is a 1940 American adventure film starring Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Claudette Colbert, and Hedy Lamarr, and directed by Jack Conway. The supporting cast features Frank Morgan, Lionel Atwill, and Chill Wills, a story written by James Edward Grant in Cosmopolitan magazine entitled A Lady Comes to Burkburnett provided the inspiration for the film. The film was produced and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, big John McMasters and Square John Sand are two down-on-their-luck oil wildcatters who join forces. Without enough money, they steal drilling equipment from a skeptical Luther Aldrich and their well proves a bust and they have to hastily depart when Aldrich shows up with the sheriff to take back his property. The two oilmen team up and make money to partially pay Aldrich. To get him to them for a second try, they cut him in for a percentage of the well. This time, they strike it rich, when Elizabeth Betsy Bartlett shows up, McMasters sweeps her off her feet and marries her. Sand accepts the situation, wanting Betsy to be happy, however, on their first anniversary, she catches her husband dancing with a barroom floozy. As a result, Sand quarrels with McMasters and they flip a coin for the entire oilfield, Betsy leaves too, but returns when she learns that her husband has lost almost everything to Sand and needs her. Each man goes through booms and busts, building on his renewed success as a wildcatter, McMasters moves to New York to expand into refineries and distribution, competing against former customer Harry Compton. Seeking inside information about his rivals, he hires away Comptons adviser Karen Vanmeer, meanwhile, Sand loses everything he has built up in South America to a revolution. When he meets McMasters at a convention, the two finally reconcile, and Sand goes to work for his old friend. When he suspects that McMasters is carrying on an affair with Karen, however, she deduces his motives and declines. When a miserable Betsy tries to suicide by taking sleeping pills. Sand loses his battle with his former friend and goes broke. It is only when he asks McMasters to give his wife a divorce that the man finally comes to his senses. Later, McMasters is prosecuted by the government for violating the Sherman Antitrust Act, in the end, poor, but happier, Sand and McMasters team up again, with the blissful Betsy looking on. Aldrich supplies them with equipment and the cycle begins again
Boom Town (film)
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theatrical poster
34.
The Boys from Syracuse (film)
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It was nominated for two Academy Awards, one for Best Visual Effects and one for Best Art Direction. Hinds as Angeen Tom Dugan as Octavius Spencer Charters as Turnkey Doris Lloyd as Woman Larry J, some of them are funny—the first two or three times, anyhow. But a lot of slapstick and confusion only goes so far in ancient dress—and, in this case. Variety wrote, Sophisticated audiences will find the gags too unsubtle and the too obvious. Harrisons Reports wrote that the film should, for the most part, prove satisfying to the masses, for it has plentiful gags, a few good songs, film Daily called it packed with laughs and definitely timely as escapist entertainment. In a review for The New Yorker, Sally Benson reported that the film had revived the musical not very successfully. The Boys from Syracuse at the Internet Movie Database
The Boys from Syracuse (film)
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Film poster
The Boys from Syracuse (film)
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Characters
35.
Dr. Cyclops
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Dr. Cyclops is a 1940 American Technicolor science fiction horror film from Paramount Pictures, produced by Dale Van Every and Merian C. Schoedsack, and starring Thomas Coley, Victor Kilian, Janice Logan, Charles Halton, Frank Yaconelli, the film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects by at the 13th Academy Awards. Dr. Cyclops is based on a story of the same name by fantasy and science fiction writer Henry Kuttner. Biologists Dr. Mary Robinson and Dr. Bullfinch are summoned by Dr. Alexander Thorkel to his laboratory in the Peruvian jungle. When they arrive, Thorkel asks the scientists to describe a specimen in his microscope, Bill identifies iron crystal contamination, much to Thorkels satisfaction. Then, to their astonishment, Thorkel thanks them for their services, insulted that they have traveled thousands of miles for nothing, they set up camp in Thorkels stockade, insisting that he tell them more about his research. While snooping around, Steve discovers the area is rich with pitchblende and he invites them and his assistant Pedro to examine his apparatus, then locks them inside his radiation chamber. With the information that Bill has provided, he is able to correct the flaw that has killed his prior specimens, when his victims awaken, they find they have shrunk to twelve inches tall. They flee from Thorkel, and then from Thorkels cat Satanus, from whom they are saved by Pedros dog Tipo, Bullfinch is eventually coaxed into speaking with Thorkel, but the latter is not interested in negotiating, merely in measuring Bullfinch. When he discovers that Bullfinch is growing, he realizes that the effect is only temporary and he murders Bullfinch in cold blood and sets out to hunt the others down so that they cannot go to the authorities. The four survivors hack their way through jungle foliage and do battle with the wildlife. They attempt to launch Pedros small boat, but are attacked by a caiman, when Thorkel locates them using Pedros dog, Pedro leads Thorkel away from the others and is shot dead. The fugitives hide in one of Thorkel’s specimen cases and are brought back undetected to his lab, while Thorkel goes outside to adjust a machine, Bill, Steve and Mary prepare to kill him with his own shotgun when he lies down on his bed. However, he falls asleep at his desk. They hide his spare glasses, then Steve steals the pair Thorkel put on his desk, Thorkel chases the shrunken trio to the mineshaft and precariously hangs by a rope when the plank he was lying on breaks. Steve cuts the rope, causing Thorkel to plunge to his death, months later, Bill, Steve and Mary return to civilization, restored to their original size. Bill and Mary are in love, schoedsack, who was also responsible for King Kong. Like that earlier film, Dr. Cyclops features elaborate sets and it is also the third American science fiction horror film made in Technicolor, the earlier Doctor X and Mystery of the Wax Museum being the first and second
Dr. Cyclops
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Dr. Cyclops
36.
Foreign Correspondent (film)
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Foreign Correspondent is a 1940 American spy thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It tells the story of an American reporter who tries to expose enemy spies in Britain who are involved in a fictional continent-wide conspiracy in the prelude to World War II. It stars Joel McCrea and features 19-year old Laraine Day, Herbert Marshall, George Sanders, Albert Bassermann and it was based on Vincent Sheeans political memoir Personal History, the rights to which were purchased by producer Walter Wanger for $10,000. The film was one of two Hitchcock films nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1941, the other being Rebecca, Foreign Correspondent was nominated for six Academy Awards, including one for Albert Bassermann for Best Supporting Actor, but did not win any Academy Awards. In mid-August 1939, just before the outbreak of World War II, after searching for a good, tough crime reporter for a fresh viewpoint, he appoints Johnny Jones as a foreign correspondent, under the pen name Huntley Haverstock. The reporters first assignment is Stephen Fisher, leader of the Universal Peace Party, at the party, Haverstock meets Fishers daughter, Carol. Later, Fisher informs the guests that Van Meer, who was supposed to be the guest of honor, will not be attending the party, at the conference, Van Meer is shot in front of a large crowd by a man disguised as a photographer. Haverstock commandeers a car to follow the assassins getaway car, the car he jumps into happens to have in it Carol and Scott ffolliott, another reporter, who explains that the capital letter in his surname was dropped in memory of an executed ancestor. The group follows the assassin to a windmill in the countryside, while Carol and ffolliott go for help, Haverstock searches the windmill and finds a live Van Meer, the man who was killed was an impostor substituted to make the world believe Van Meer was killed. The old man has been drugged and is unable to tell Haverstock anything, Haverstock is forced to flee when the kidnappers become aware of him. By the time the police arrive, the villains have escaped with Van Meer in an aircraft, later, back at Haverstocks hotel room, two spies dressed as policemen arrive to kidnap him. When he suspects who really are, he escapes out the window. Haverstock and Carol board a British boat to England, and while a furious storm thunders overhead, in England, they go to Carols fathers house, where Haverstock sees a man whom he recognizes as one of the men at the windmill. He informs Fisher and Fisher promises that he send a bodyguard to protect him. The bodyguard, Rowley, repeatedly tries to kill Haverstock, when the assassin tries to push him off the top of the Westminster Cathedral tower, Haverstock steps aside and Rowley plunges to his death. After a misunderstanding with Haverstock, Carol returns to London, just as Fisher is about to fall for ffolliotts bluff, he hears her car pull up. Fisher heads to a hotel where Van Meer is being held with ffolliott on his tail, Van Meer is being interrogated using sleep deprivation to discover a secret clause in a treaty he signed. Just as he is being forced to divulge the information the organization wants, when Haverstock arrives, Fisher and his bodyguards escape, leaving Van Meer behind
Foreign Correspondent (film)
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Theatrical release poster
Foreign Correspondent (film)
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Joel McCrea as "Huntley Haverstock", foreign correspondent
Foreign Correspondent (film)
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George Sanders as "Scott ffolliott" [
sic]
Foreign Correspondent (film)
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George Sanders,
Laraine Day and
Joel McCrea in pursuit of an assassin
37.
The Invisible Man Returns
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The Invisible Man Returns is a 1940 American horror science fiction film from Universal. It was written as a sequel to the 1933 film The Invisible Man, the studio had signed a multi-picture contract with Wells, and they were hoping that this film would do as well as the first. It would be followed by the comedic The Invisible Woman later the same year, the screen play for the film was written by Lester Cole and Curt Siodmak. The film director was Joe May, who had previously directed The House of the Seven Gables, the cast of the film included Vincent Price, Cecil Kellaway, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Nan Grey, Alan Napier and John Sutton. The film ran for 81 minutes in black-and-white with mono sound, the production ran slightly over budget, costing $270,000, but it returned good box office revenues. The special effects by John P. Fulton, Bernard B. Brown, in the chronology styled documentary, Ted Newsons 100 Years of Horror, Price recalls that the undressing of the scarecrow scene took several hours to shoot, for only three minutes of on screen time. The transparent effect was done with black covering the actor. Sir Geoffrey Radcliffe is sentenced to death for the murder of his brother Michael, Dr. Frank Griffin, the brother of the original invisible man, injects the prisoner with an invisibility drug. As Radcliffes execution nears, he vanishes from his cell. Detective Sampson from the Scotland Yard guesses the truth while Radcliffe searches for the murderer before the drug causes him to go insane. The Radcliffe family owns a mining operation, the recently promoted employee Willie Spears is promoted within the company, stirring Radcliffes suspicions. After forcing Spears car off the road, Spears is scared into revealing that Richard Cobb, after a confrontation, a chase scene ensues during which Radcliffe is struck by a bullet from Sampson. Cobb is killed falling from a wagon, but not before confessing to the murder. Radcliffe, dying from blood loss and exposure, makes his way to Dr. Griffin, a transfusion of blood makes Radcliffe visible, allowing the doctor to operate and save his life. Sir Cedric Hardwicke as Richard Cobb Vincent Price as Sir Geoffrey Radcliffe / The Invisible Man Nan Grey as Helen Manson John Sutton as Dr, the Invisible Man Returns at the Internet Movie Database The Invisible Man Returns at AllMovie The Invisible Man Returns at the TCM Movie Database
The Invisible Man Returns
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Theatrical release poster
38.
The Long Voyage Home
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The Long Voyage Home is a 1940 American drama film directed by John Ford. It stars John Wayne, Thomas Mitchell and Ian Hunter and it also features Barry Fitzgerald, Wilfrid Lawson, John Qualen, Mildred Natwick, and Ward Bond, among others. The film was adapted by Dudley Nichols from the plays The Moon of the Caribbees, In the Zone, Bound East for Cardiff, the original plays by Eugene ONeill were written around the time of World War I and were among his earliest plays. Ford set the story for the picture, however, during the early days of World War II. While not one of Fords best-known works, The Long Voyage Home continues to be well received, the film tells the story of the crew aboard a British tramp steamer named the SS Glencairn on the long voyage home from the West Indies to Baltimore and then to England. The crew is a motley, fun-loving, hard-drinking lot, the next day the ship sails to pick up its cargo for its return trip to England. When the crew discovers that the cargo is high explosives, they at first rebel, but they are easily cowed into submission by the captain and the ship sails, crossing the Atlantic and passing through what they all know is a war zone and potential disaster. After the ship leaves Baltimore with its load of dynamite, the rough seas they encounter become nerve-racking to the crew, when the anchor breaks loose, Yank is injured in the effort to secure it. With no doctor on board, nothing can be done for his injury, theyre also concerned that Smitty might be a German spy because hes so aloof and secretive. After they assault Smitty and restrain and gag him, they force him to give up the key to a metal box they have found in his bunk which they at first think is a bomb. Opening the box against Smittys vigorous protests, they discover a packet of letters, in the war zone as they near port, a German plane attacks the ship, killing Smitty in a burst of machine gun fire. He has his eye on Ole because he is the biggest and strongest of the lot and he drugs Oles drink, and calls his confederates in to shanghai Ole aboard another ship, the Amindra. Driscoll and the rest of the crew, even though drunk and almost too late, rescue Ole from the Amindra, the next morning, the crew straggles back somewhat dejectedly and resignedly to the Glencairn to sign on for another voyage. A newspaper headline reveals that the Amindra has been sunk in the Channel by German torpedoes and he hired nine prominent American artists, all painters, to document the dramatic scenes during the films production. Mr. Wanger offered a commission of over $50,000 to encourage the artists to participate, no other undertaking of this magnitude and purpose had been done before in Hollywood film making. The artists insisted on three things to ensure a quality effort, freedom of choice on subject matter, studios on the lot. The artists who participated were Thomas Benton, Grant Wood, George Biddle, James Chapin, Ernest Fiene, Robert Philipp, Luis Quintanilla, Raphael Soyer, eleven original paintings emerged from this inaugural effort. These toured the country in the circuit of the day beginning with a display in the Associated American Artists Galleries on Fifth Avenue
The Long Voyage Home
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Theatrical release poster
The Long Voyage Home
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Plays
39.
One Million B.C.
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One Million B. C. is a 1940 American fantasy film produced by Hal Roach Studios and released by United Artists. It is also known by the titles Cave Man, Man and His Mate, the film was a popular success and was nominated for two Academy Awards for its special effects and musical score. In a modern-day prologue, a group of hikers caught in a storm shelter in a cave. They encounter an anthropologist who interprets prehistoric carvings that introduce the story of a young caveman, Akhoba head of the Rock Tribe leads a hunting party. His son Tumak begs the right to his first kill, a small triceratops which he wrestles to death, an elderly man in the party falls from a cliff and is left to die. The party arrives at the Rock Tribes cave with their prey, the beast is cooked on a fire. When it is done, the strongest feed first, next the women and children, then the few elderly pick the scraps, Tumak defends his portion from demands by Akhoba. They fight and Akhoba knocks Tumak over a cliff as his mother watches, Tumak recovers to find a mastodon attacking him. He runs and climbs a tree, the mastodon rams the tree and knocks it into a river. Tumak floats downstream unconscious and is found by Loana of the Shell Tribe and her tribesmen answer her shell horn call and take Tumak to their cave. The tribe gathers for a meal of vegetables, shared orderly with the children, women, Tumak awakes and Loana gives him food, which he guards as he eats, perplexing the tribe who share and do not fight. Tumak looks on, confused by the customs of the Shell Tribe, meanwhile, Akhoba leads a hunting party into the hills but is injured trying to take down a muskox. As Akhoba lies injured, a younger hunter asserts authority over the others and takes Akhobas place as leader, later, Akhoba, crippled, shows up at the cave but is treated with contempt. Tumak adjusts slowly to life with the Shell Tribe and he helps the children gather food by shaking fruit out of a tree and they teach him how to laugh. He tries to fish with Loana but gets frustrated, as fishing is not like land hunting. While he is fishing, an Allosaurus traps a child in a tree, Tumak uses a borrowed spear to kill the monster and save the child, but does not want to return the spear to its owner, believing he has earned it. Later that night Tumak steals the spear and a hammer from their maker, the tribal leader, Loanas father, banishes Tumak. As Tumak departs, Loana, who has fallen in love him, leaves her tribe to follow him
One Million B.C.
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Theatrical release poster
40.
Rebecca (1940 film)
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Rebecca is a 1940 American psychological thriller-mystery film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It was Hitchcocks first American project, and his first film produced under contract with David O. Selznick, the films screenplay was a version by Joan Harrison and Robert E. Sherwood based on Philip MacDonald and Michael Hogans adaptation of Daphne du Mauriers 1938 novel Rebecca. The film is shot in black-and-white, and is a gothic tale, Maxim de Winters first wife Rebecca, who died before the story starts, is never seen. Her reputation and others recollections about her, however, are a constant presence in the lives of Maxim, his new young wife. Rebecca won two Academy Awards, Outstanding Production and Cinematography, out of a total 11 nominations, Olivier, Fontaine and Anderson were all Oscar nominated for their respective roles. However, since 1936, Rebecca is the film that, despite winning Best Picture. Rebecca was the film at the 1st Berlin International Film Festival in 1951. A naïve young woman is in Monte Carlo working as a companion to Edythe Van Hopper when she meets the aristocratic. They fall in love, and within two weeks they are married, the young woman is now the second Mrs. de Winter. Maxim takes his new bride back to Manderley, his country house in Cornwall. As her closest confidant, Mrs. Danvers regularly comments on Rebeccas exceptional grace, when asked what Rebecca was like, Frank Crawley, Maxims best friend and manager of the estate, absent-mindedly tells the new Mrs. de Winter that Rebecca was an exceptional beauty. The new Mrs. de Winter is intimidated by her responsibilities, the continuous reminders of Rebecca overwhelm her, she believes that Maxim is still deeply in love with his first wife. She also discovers that her husband sometimes becomes very angry at her for apparently insignificant actions and she also meets Rebeccas so-called favorite cousin, Jack Favell, who visits the house while Maxim is away. Trying to be the wife, the young Mrs. de Winter convinces Maxim to hold a costume party. She wants to plan her own costume, but Mrs. Danvers suggests she copy the beautiful outfit in the portrait of Lady Caroline de Winter, an ancestor of Maxims. At the party, when the costume is revealed, Maxim is appalled, Rebecca wore the outfit at the ball a year ago. Mrs. de Winter confronts Danvers, who tells her she can never take Rebeccas place, an airborne flare reveals that a ship has hit the rocks. Mrs. de Winter rushes outside, where she hears that during the rescue a sunken boat has been found with Rebeccas body in it, Maxim admits to his new wife that he had earlier misidentified another body as Rebeccas, in order to conceal the truth
Rebecca (1940 film)
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Theatrical release poster
Rebecca (1940 film)
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Mrs. Danvers attempts to persuade Mrs. de Winter to leap to her death.
Rebecca (1940 film)
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Laurence Olivier and
Joan Fontaine, stars of the film.
41.
The Sea Hawk (1940 film)
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The film was the tenth collaboration between Flynn and director Michael Curtiz. Its screenplay was written by Howard Koch and Seton I. Miller, the rousing musical score by Erich Wolfgang Korngold is recognized as a high point in his career. Colorized versions of The Sea Hawk were broadcast on American television, only the black-and-white edited version and the fully restored/uncut version, have been released in the DVD format. No plans have been announced to release the version on DVD. He sends one of his courtiers, Don Alvarez, as his ambassador to allay the suspicions of Queen Elizabeth I about the great armada he is building to invade England. In England, some of the Queens ministers plead with her to build a fleet, the ambassadors ship is captured en route to England by the Albatross and her captain, Geoffrey Thorpe. Don Alvarez and his niece, Doña María, are taken aboard, Thorpe is immediately enchanted by Doña María and gallantly returns her plundered jewels. Her detestation of him softens as she too begins to fall in love, Don Alvarez is granted an audience with the Queen and complains about his treatment, Doña María is accepted as one of her maids of honour. The Sea Hawks, a group of English privateers who loot Spanish ships for reparations appear before the Queen, Captain Thorpe finally appears and proposes a plan to seize a large caravan of Spanish gold in the New World and bring it back to England. The Queen is wary of Spains reaction, but allows Thorpe to proceed, when the Albatross reaches its destination, the ship is spotted by a native who reports it to the Spanish Governor. Part of Thorpes crew seizes the caravan, but they fall into a trap and are driven into the swamps. Thorpe and a few others survive and return to their ship, Thorpe and his crew are returned to Spain, tried by the Inquisition, and sentenced to life imprisonment as galley slaves. In England, Don Álvarez informs the Queen of Thorpes fate, the Queen and Don Álvarez exchange heated words, and she expels him from her court. On the Spanish galley, Thorpe meets an Englishman named Abbott, through cunning, the prisoners take over the ship during the night. They board another ship in the harbor, where an emissary has stored secret incriminating plans. Thorpe and his men capture both and sail back to England with the plans in hand, upon reaching port, Thorpe tries to warn the Queen. A carriage bringing Don Álvarez to the ship which, unknown to him, Thorpe had captured, the two finally declare their love for each other, and María helps Thorpe to sneak into the palace. However, Lord Wolfinghams spy, who had escorted the ambassador and his niece, spots Thorpe and alerts the guards to stop the carriage
The Sea Hawk (1940 film)
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Original
theatrical poster
The Sea Hawk (1940 film)
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Flynn, c. 1940
42.
Swiss Family Robinson (1940 film)
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Swiss Family Robinson is a 1940 American film released by RKO Radio Pictures and directed by Edward Ludwig. It is based on the novel The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss and is the first feature-length film version of the story, in London in 1813, a Swiss father, William Robinson, wishes to escape the influence of the superficial profligacy of London on his family. His eldest son, Fritz, is obsessed with Napoleon, whom he considers his hero and his middle son, Jack, is a foolish dandy who cares only about fashion and money. And his dreamy son Ernest is preoccupied with reading and writing to the exclusion of all else, William Robinson sells his business and house, in order to move with his wife and four sons to Australia. They set out on a bound for the faraway country. Following a long voyage, the family is shipwrecked on a deserted island after the captain. The family members collaborate to create a home for themselves in the jungle environment. They gradually learn to use the plants and animals to create what they need to live and thrive. They have many adventures and challenges and make many discoveries, the mother, however, misses her elegant home and community in England, and wishes to somehow be rescued and return. The father slowly convinces her that living in the environment is better for the family. The producers specialised in making films based on public domain texts, tim Holt was the first star assigned. Freddie Bartholomew and Terry Kilburn were borrowed from MGM and this was the first feature-length film with a performance by Orson Welles, who went uncredited as the story’s narrator. A version running 108 minutes is also screened occasionally, the film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Special Effects. Frank Nugent of The New York Times wrote, When it stays with the book, which was adventure plus instruction, the storm sequences—there are three of them—are properly noisy, drenching and spectacular. They and the uniformly competent performance of the cast make it an entertaining, if rather somnolently paced. Variety called it an adventure yarn but suggested that the tropical storm sequences went on too long. Film Daily called it a picture for the family trade. Harrisons Reports wrote, Pretty good entertainment, adapted with imagination and produced with skill
Swiss Family Robinson (1940 film)
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Film poster
43.
Women in War
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Women in War is a 1940 American war film about the nurses of the British Voluntary Aid Detachment during the Battle of France. Directed by John H. Auer and starring Wendy Barrie, Elsie Janis and Patric Knowles, socialite Pamela Starr meets Mr Tedford, an older man in a London night club. After he escorts her home he tries to enter her flat feeling he has deserved the right to sleep with her as he has paid for her entertainment, Pamela thrusts a £5 note in his hands as reimbursement and attempts to enter her room but Tedford wont let her. The spirited Pamela strikes the drunken Tedford sending him across the landing where he crashes through a railing over the stairwell sending Tedford to his death. Watching the trial is Matron ONeil who was formerly Pamelas mother until she divorced her husband, Pamela had never known her mother and her late libertine father had denied her moral leadership and discipline in raising her. ONeil and Pamelas defence solicitor concoct an arrangement where Pamela wont be charged with Tedfords death if she volunteers to be an Army nurse in France, Pamela is assigned to a VAD Detachment led by Matron ONeil with Pamela still unaware that ONeil is her mother. Pamelas infamous reputation precedes her and furthermore the fiancee of one of her fellow nurses, the tensions of the nurses continue as their detachment is sent to a dangerous area of the battle line
Women in War
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Film poster
44.
I Wanted Wings
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I Wanted Wings is a 1941 American drama film directed by Mitchell Leisen and based on a book by Lieutenant Beirne Lay, Jr. The film stars Ray Milland and William Holden, the supporting cast includes Wayne Morris, Brian Donlevy, Constance Moore and Veronica Lake. I Wanted Wings features Lakes first major film role and her career took off shortly thereafter, the same year, she starred in Sullivans Travels. Lake would become one of the most popular and successful actresses of the early 1940s and its 1940, prior to the American entry into what would become World War II. After an air raid exercise in Los Angeles involving eighteen U. S. Army Air Corps Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers, mysteriously, the dead body of a woman is found in the wreck. The pilot, Lieutenant Jefferson Young III, is accused of having a civilian passenger on board. Before the court martial decides on a ruling, they review Jeffs military background, the son of a wealthy Long Island businessman, Jeff joins the U. S. Army Air Corps. At basic training in Texas, he meets former football hero Tom Cassidy and Al Ludlow, Jeff and Al become close friends and support each other through training. Jeff meets a girl named Sally Vaughn, unaware that she used to be Als sweetheart, fortunately, Al comes between them and pulls Jeff away. After this, Jeff continues to court Carolyn, during training at another airfield, Tom dies in an aircraft crash while performing a daredevil stunt. Al, a cadet captain, takes the blame for what happened and is discharged from the Air Corps. Jeff secretly continues to see Sally because she has threatened to destroy his reputation, Al again steps in and marries Sally, partly because he loves her and partly to save Jeffs career. However, Carolyn finds out about Jeffs deceit and leaves him and he graduates from flight school some time after. After six months of marriage, Sally tells Al that she lied about being pregnant, upset and believing that he never loved her, Sally leaves Al. One day, when Jeff is about to go up in the air to participate in war game training, he meets Al, when their old mentor, Captain Mercer, finds out about Al, he starts working to get him reinstated as an officer candidate and a pilot. Suddenly, Sally turns up, begging Al for help, claiming to be wanted for murder, Al gives her money to go to Los Angeles. Before she can leave the hangar, other Air Corps officers enter the building, Sally hides inside the bomb bay of a bomber. She is still there when the aircraft takes off, when the games are completed, Mercer asks Jeff to test a new set of emergency flares
I Wanted Wings
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Theatrical poster
45.
Flight Command
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Flight Command is a 1940 American film about a cocky U. S. Navy pilot who has problems with his new squadron and falls for the wife of his commander. It stars Robert Taylor, Ruth Hussey and Walter Pidgeon. S and he also asks out Lorna, a woman he has met, not knowing that she is married to the squadron commander Billy Gary. But he is earnest and contrite, and both his flying and his social errors are readily forgiven, although initially reluctant to accept a recent trainee, soon enough his fellow pilots do. He mixes with them at the Garys large house, which the couple have opened as an unofficial officers club. Drake also proves himself when he helps Lieutenant Jerry Banning solve a problem in an apparatus he is developing. Just after Commander Gary is sent out of town on assignment, Banning decides the apparatus is ready to test in fog—but it fails, working with Bannings assistant, Drake soon identifies the problem, but no further testing is allowed. Banning had been a friend of Lorna Garys since childhood, and is not her first friend to die and she sinks into a deep depression, made worse because she knows her husband will expect her to hide her feelings, deal with the facts, and carry on. Drake is finally able to reach her and convinces her to keep her mind occupied with activities and she goes out with him for walks, drives, tennis, he amuses her with jokes. At a restaurant she reaches for his hand and realizes she is falling for him and she quickly breaks away and says she cannot see him any more. As soon as her husband returns, she tells him she needs to leave him for a while and she explains that she cannot again hide her feelings and carry on after a tragedy, as he expects, but he just says she should have said so before. Not mentioning Drake, she says that she has changed. He tells her to leave if she must, but he loves her. Because Drake and Lorna were seen together, some of the squadron believe he must have seduced her, out of respect for her privacy, Drake gives no explanation but merely files a resignation letter, which Commander Gary reluctantly puts through channels. While waiting for a response, they participate in a search and rescue, during which Garys engine fails. Drake acts against orders to him, but San Diego is under a heavy fog. Fortunately Bannings equipment is still on Drakes plane, and he is able to use it to land safely, in response to a telegram, Lorna Gary returns to San Diego and visits her husband in the hospital, their marriage is saved. She explains what happened between her and Drake, his reputation is saved, and Drakes resignation is refused because he is too junior to leave the Navy, his career with the squadron is saved. Flight Command had impressive aerial scenes due to the cooperation of the US Navy, with the loan of VF-6 squadron
Flight Command
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Theatrical poster
Flight Command
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Although operational in 1940, the Grumman F3F series was obsolete by the time the US entered World War II.
46.
The Invisible Woman (1940 film)
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The Invisible Woman is an American science fiction comedy film that was released near the end of 1940 by Universal. It is the third Invisible Man film following The Invisible Man and The Invisible Man Returns and it was more of a screwball comedy than other films in the series. The film stars Virginia Bruce in the role, the aging John Barrymore, John Howard, Charlie Ruggles, and Oscar Homolka. The wealthy lawyer Dick Russell funds the dotty old inventor Professor Gibbs to create an invisibility device, the first test subject for this machine is Kitty Carroll, a department store model who had been fired from her previous job. The machine proves quite successful, and Kitty uses her invisible state to pay back her former sadistic boss, Mr. Growley. While the Professor and the invisible Kitty are off visiting the lodge of the millionaire Russell, with the machine back at their hideout, however, they cannot get it to work. By now Kitty has returned to visibility, and the thugs are sent in to kidnap her, however, she has learned that some alcohol will restore her to invisibility, and uses this to defeat the gang. At the end of the film it is revealed she has married, to top it off, she and the professor learn that her treatment has apparently become hereditary—as her infant son vanishes upon being rubbed with an alcohol-based lotion. Cast notes Margaret Sullavan had originally slated for the role of the invisible woman. Maria Montez makes an appearance among some models and says one line, the comedy writers Robert Lees and Fred Rinaldo wrote the screenplay in slapstick style, while H. G. Wells was again credited as the original author of The Invisible Man. The film was directed by A. Edward Sutherland and it was the first role for Maria Montez. This film runs for 70 minutes and was filmed in black, the special effects were produced by John P. Fulton, who earned another nomination for an Oscar following his comparable effects work in The Invisible Man Returns. John D. Hall also was nominated for the Oscar, the John Howard who appears in the film and in several Bulldog Drummond films with Barrymore, is not the John Howard who married Barrymores daughter, Diana, in 1947. Theodore Strauss of The New York Times called the silly, banal. The script is as creaky as a cart and were it not for the fact that John Barrymore is taking a ride in it we hate to think what The Invisible Woman might have turned out to be. Variety called it, Good entertainment for general audiences, film Daily called it laugh-packed, brightly dialogued and a lot of fun. Harrisons Reports declared it a pretty good comedy for the masses, but it does not offer anything new to those who saw the other pictures in which the character became invisible. John Mosher of The New Yorker wrote, The old stunt is still good, in fact, this is the feeblest example so far of that stunt which the camera can so easily make funny
The Invisible Woman (1940 film)
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Theatrical release poster
47.
The Sea Wolf (1941 film)
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The Sea Wolf is a 1941 American black-and-white film adaptation of Jack Londons novel The Sea Wolf with Edward G. Robinson, Ida Lupino, and John Garfield. The film was written by Robert Rossen and directed by Michael Curtiz, the Sea Wolf has several connections to the city of London, Ontario, aside from the source authors surname. Warner and cast member Gene Lockhart were both born in the city and cast member Alexander Knox attended university there, for these reasons, the films Canadian premiere was held at Londons Capitol Theatre. Refined fiction writer Humphrey van Weyden and escaped convict Ruth Webster are passengers on a ship that collides with another vessel and they are rescued by the Ghost, a seal-hunting ship. At the helm is the brutal Captain Wolf Larsen, an individual who delights in dominating and abusing his crew. Larsen refuses to return to early and forces van Weyden to work as the new cabin boy. Fortunately, it is, and she recovers, as time goes by, she comes to depend on Leach for protection and, despite himself, Leach falls in love with her. Most of the film is centered on Larsen’s peculiar character and he is very well read, yet cannot see anything useful in his education. When Prescott complains about the way he is treated, Larsen orders the crew to respect his dignity, only to conclude by kicking the man down stairs for his. Prescott climbs the mast and reveals that Larsens own brother, Death Larsen, another sea captain, is hunting him, having vowed to kill him, Leach and several other crewmen ambush Larsen and throw him and his first mate overboard. However, Larsen manages to grab a rope, climb back aboard. Larsen cannot afford to any men, so instead of punishing them, he betrays his informant. They drop him in the water, holding onto a rope for dear life, before they can pull him back in though, a shark bites off his leg. Eventually, Leach, Webster, van Weyden, and another crewman escape on a dory, however, they discover that the wily Larsen had replaced their water supply with vinegar. The fourth man later sacrifices himself by going overboard to help conserve the water they have. Larsen is subject to intense headaches that leave him temporarily blind and he knows that he will eventually lose his sight permanently. When Larsens brother catches up with him, a cannon shot holes the Ghost, the ship escapes into a fog bank, but Larsen goes blind again and his debility is revealed to all. The crew seizes the opportunity to take to the boats, then, van Weyden, Leach, and Webster sight the Ghost and, having no other choice, reboard her
The Sea Wolf (1941 film)
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Theatrical release poster
The Sea Wolf (1941 film)
48.
That Hamilton Woman
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That Hamilton Woman, is a 1941 black-and-white historical film drama, produced and directed by Alexander Korda for his American company during his exile in the United States. She later became mistress to Admiral Horatio Nelson, the story begins with an ageing, alcoholic woman being clapped into debtors prison in the slums of Calais. In a husky, despairing, whiskey-soaked voice, the former Lady Hamilton narrates the story of her life to her fellow inmates. Emma Harts early life as the mistress of the charming but unreliable Charles Francis Greville leads to her meeting with his wealthy uncle Sir William Hamilton, Greville gives Emma to Sir William in exchange for relief on his debts. At first Emma is crushed by this turn of events, gradually, however, she comes to appreciate her luxurious surroundings and her glamorous new life. She also grows to respect Sir William, who marries her, when Horatio Nelson arrives in Naples, Emma is soon deeply attracted to him and is impressed by his passionate insistence on resisting Napoleons dictatorial rule. She leaves Sir William to live with Nelson, who is also married and their idyllic life together is threatened by the continuing war and their infidelity to their spouses. Nelson leaves to confront Napoleons navy in the decisive Battle of Trafalgar, after his death in the battle, she succumbs to alcoholism and spirals down into poverty and oblivion. Shot in the United States during September and October 1940, That Hamilton Woman defines Britains struggle against Napoleon in terms of resistance to a dictator who seeks to dominate the world. The film was intended to parallel the current situation in Europe, on a tight budget, Korda completed filming in only five weeks, working from an original screenplay by Walter Reisch and R. C. Originally intended to be named The Enchantress, the film was first released in Britain as Lady Hamilton, Stars Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier were newlyweds at the time of filming and were considered a dream couple. The films tagline was, The Years Most Exciting Team of Screen Lovers and that Hamilton Woman is the last of three films they made together, their only film as a married couple. Their first film, Fire Over England, was produced by Korda. In one scene, Laurence Olivier as Nelson, says he has received orders from Admiral Hood, because of the strict Motion Picture Production Code, the two lovers never appear in bed together, nor ever even partially undressed together. Before the affair begins, Emma sits on her bed, wherein Nelson is recovering from exhaustion, while That Hamilton Woman was marketed as historical romance, its subtext falls into the war propaganda category. In July 1941, the isolationist group America First Committee targeted That Hamilton Woman, the AFC called on the American public to boycott theaters showing these movies. Perhaps if it had all been condensed and contrived with less manifest awe, the effect would have more exciting. As it is, the drama in the picture is dissipated over many expansive scenes
That Hamilton Woman
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Theatrical release poster
That Hamilton Woman
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HMS Victory made for That Hamilton Woman
That Hamilton Woman
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Emma Hart, later Lady Hamilton, in a Straw Hat, c. 1782–84, by George Romney
49.
Topper Returns
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Topper Returns is the third and final entry in the initial series of supernatural comedy films inspired by the novels of Thorne Smith. It followed Topper and Topper Takes a Trip, the plot revolves around a murder mystery. Joan Blondell portrays a woman who seeks out the reluctant Topper and enlists his help in identifying her killer and saving her friend. Most of the takes place in a spooky mansion filled with eccentric characters, trapdoors. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Special Effects and Best Sound, a TV series of Topper premiered in 1953 and ran for two seasons. A pilot called Topper Returns was later made for a proposed TV series, there was also a made-for-TV remake of the original film Topper in. In 1969, Topper Returns entered the domain in the United States due to the failure to renew the films copyright registration in the 28th year after publication. Joan Blondell as Gail Richards Roland Young as Cosmo Topper Carole Landis as Ann Carrington Billie Burke as Clara Topper Dennis OKeefe as Bob Patsy Kelly as Emily H. B, warner as Henry Carrington Eddie Anderson as Eddie George Zucco as Dr
Topper Returns
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DVD cover
50.
A Yank in the R.A.F.
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A Yank in the R. A. F. is a 1941 American black-and-white war film directed by Henry King, and is considered a typical early-World War II film. Originally titled The Eagle Squadron, it is based on a story by Melville Crossman and it follows an American pilot who joins the Royal Air Force during a period when the United States was still neutral. In 1940, American-built North American Harvard training aircraft are flown to just outside Canada, Baker ferries a Lockheed Hudson bomber to Britain, pocketing $1,000 for his work. In London, he runs into his on-again off-again girlfriend Carol Brown and she is none too pleased to see him, calling him a worm for his womanizing ways, lying, and long absence, but he is confident she still harbors strong feelings for him. He decides to enlist in the Royal Air Force, meanwhile, Brown attracts the appreciative attention of two RAF officers, Wing Commander John Morley and Flying Officer Roger Pillby. Morley persists in seeing Brown, despite being told at the outset that there is another man, Pillby is unable to persuade either Baker or Morley to introduce him. After completing training, Baker is disappointed to be assigned to Morleys bomber squadron and he becomes further disgruntled when his first mission is to bomb Berlin with propaganda leaflets as Morleys co-pilot during the Phoney War. Pillby pilots another bomber in the raid, when Baker is late for their date, Brown accepts Morleys invitation to spend a weekend at his country estate. There, Morley asks her to marry him, when she tells Baker about it, he offers to marry her himself, but in an insultingly casual way. She tells him that they are through, back at the base, the two rivals learn of each others involvement with the same woman. Before they can do anything about it, however, the Germans invade the Netherlands and Belgium, and they are given an urgent mission to bomb Dortmund, Germany, during the nighttime raid, their bomber is hit, disabling one of their two engines. Pillby descends to their aid, knocking out searchlights, but is shot down in flames and perishes, Morley orders his crew to bail out, but Baker disobeys and lands the aircraft on a Dutch beach. Spotting a line of German soldiers, they hide in a nearby building, a crewman sacrifices himself, enabling the other two to dispatch the German and escape by motorboat. Baker wakes up in a British hospital, the victim of exposure, once discharged, he goes to see Brown, pretending to have a broken arm, but blunders and shows himself to be a liar once more. Nonetheless, he produces an engagement ring and forces it onto her finger, after receiving a telephone call from Morley breaking their date, Brown informs Baker that all leaves have been canceled. Reserves are called up to make up fighter pilot losses, and he downs two Luftwaffe fighters before being shot down. Carol cannot hide her distress when she find out whether he is alive or not. Morley takes her to the docks, where ships returning from the Dunkirk beaches are bringing back survivors, when Baker debarks, Carol rushes to him and shows him she is still wearing his ring
A Yank in the R.A.F.
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Original theatrical release poster
A Yank in the R.A.F.
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The opening scene depicts a true incident where U.S. aircraft were towed across the Canadian border.
